“Kids are wildly suggestible. Ask a kid repeatedly if he might be depressed—how about now? Are you sure?—and he just might decide that he is.” – Abigail Shrier’s book, Stop Asking Kids If They’re Depressed
The following Open Letter to the Highline School Board was submitted by Stuart Jenner.
[NOTE FROM EDITOR: Letters to the Editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Burien.News or Daniel Media. If you wish to submit a story, photo, article or letter, please contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.]
Dear School Board Members,
The August 20 school board agenda has an item that merits more than the typical rubber stamping of whatever district staff requests. The item: policy 3232 on parent opt outs.
It appears this policy in combination with other district attitudes and policies is designed to make it impossible for parents to opt out of a survey unless the survey is funded by the federal government. If this is not correct, then I wonder what the situation will actually be. (Unfortunately, there can be a lot of pressure on staff, and pressure on families, even if a policy says something.) Given US government funding trends, this could well mean every survey Highline gives students will not have federal funding, and therefore will be impossible to opt out of.
However, there’s also the possibility this policy actually does allow parents to opt out of any and all surveys as long as Highline district receives any federal funding for any reason. Here’s why:: money from federal sources is co mingled with other sources. When an employee who’s giving the survey is in part funded by federal sources, even a tiny smidgen, that counts as federal funding and therefore the district should give parents and children a way to opt out. If the employee does not provide that opt-out option, then in my opinion, the district is taking on significant legal liability. An individual district employee may say oh there’s no problem, but are they at personal financial risk? Are you going to reduce their pension to pay for the legal costs if that employee is mistaken? One could claim “well, we will provide opt out to some students where there’s a possibility of some federal funding, but not to other students who don’t get any federal funding.” My instinct is that would be impossible, especially over the long run.
A major concern is data security. At the start of the 2024-25 school year, Highline had a significant data breach. I am guessing information from surveys was among the information that was of great interest to the hackers. I can also guess this type of information would be of great interest in the future as well.
Unfortunately, the only way to have zero chance of data being stolen is to not have the data at all. And unfortunately, the data may surface at a time and context that is not of your of the student’s choosing, but that is designed to inflict maximum pain on an individual.
My advice to parents and children if Highline mandates student participation and will not allow opt outs: fill in every bubble, or if that’s not possible, skip every possible screen, or if that’s not possible, enter choices that are utterly wrong and implausible. Then in the boxes where one enters text, enter gibberish. Enter an X, or draw a long line of dashes. In other words, opt out in a way of your choosing if the district won’t allow an opt out.
You may find this destroys the integrity of your surveys.
I have recently read some stories about what we could call the “observer effect.” observing, or in this case asking questions, results in changes to the research subject.
Here’s an example: Stop Asking Kids If Thy’re Depressed by Abigail Shrier
I have two excerpts from her article – these may not be visible unless you sign up for the newsletter (if that seems intrusive, yes, it is, but not nearly as intrusive as student surveys)
First excerpt:
“In 2024, I published Bad Therapy, an investigation into the surge in adolescent mental-health diagnoses and psychiatric prescription drug use. Many young people without serious mental illness nonetheless spend years languishing with a diagnosis, alternately cursing it and embracing it, believing they have a broken brain, convincing themselves that their struggles are insurmountable because of the disorder’s constraints. They meet regularly with a therapist or school counselor on whom they become increasingly reliant, losing a sense of efficacy, unable to navigate on their own even minor setbacks and interpersonal conflicts. They begin courses of antidepressants that carry all kinds of side effects—suppressed libido, fatigue, the muffling of all emotion, and even an increase in depression. Antianxiety drugs and the stimulants given to kids diagnosed with ADHD are both addictive and ubiquitously abused.
“Often that tragic descent begins with a simple mental health survey. “
Second excerpt:
“Kids are wildly suggestible, especially where psychiatric symptoms are concerned. Ask a kid repeatedly if he might be depressed—how about now? Are you sure?—and he just might decide that he is.“
To close, this is too complicated to cover in two minutes of comment time, so I’m writing this as a letter in the Burien.News web site.
-Stuart
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