My son is in the 3rd grade and his teacher sent home a survey for him to complete with us. It has stuff on it like "Are you a boy or a girl?" "Do you feel like you were born in the right body?" "Do you like/are attracted to people the same gender as you?" "Do you feel like you are alone?" "Have you ever hurt yourself on purpose? Do you feel like killing yourself?"

Ummm... Excuse me? My son is 9. ***EDIT: Why does the school need to know my son's sexual orientation when there are no other questions about supports/feeling included? Or if he's being bullied because of his orientation? Why are they asking about suicide when they have nothing about supports/questions about why they feel like killing themselves?***

I asked her what the purpose of the survey was and she said it's to better understand risk factors for depression and suicide in transgender children. ***EDIT: I asked what risk factors they were testing for because there was nothing in the survey about feeling accepted, being bullied, feeling safe, or anything. It was essentially all about self harm/depression/suicide but nothing about coping mechanisms, what family life is like, support systems, etc***

I said that I was not comfortable filling out the survey because I don't believe a public school a) knows what to do with the data they've collected, and b) isn't able to interpret the data and c) I want to know what the data will be used for and what they will do with it. I asked what they were going to do with the data once collected and she said she didn't know. ***EDIT: The survey is also not anonymous.***

What the heck is going on in our schools?!

**EDIT: I don't have a problem with the LGBTQ community at all! I think tools like this absolutely should be used, however, in the wrong hands it can be harmful, especially since it's not anonymous and they don't know what they're doing with the information collected. I think creating safe places is very important, but since these surveys are being done with a parent and child, data can also be skewed! It should be anonymous and completed at school after parents give consent.***