Four walls and a keyboard: A post of some substance

Four walls and a keyboard

'I love talking about nothing. It's the only thing I know anything about.' ~ Oscar Wilde

Friday, May 12, 2006

A post of some substance

I've started working out at the College this week, and we were doing surveys on youth lifestyles among grades 8 to 12 in the region's school division. On Wednesday we went to three towns and surveyed approximately 80 kids. Over the course of two weeks we were supposed to be surveying over 300 kids.

The questionnaire, asked youth about a range of lifestyle choices including physical activity, eating habits, and mental health. Some of the more sensitive items on the survey asked youth about drugs and alcohol, sexual activity, and carrying weapons.

Parents had to give consent before their children could participate in the survey. They were told the content of the questionnaire and given a sample of the questions on it to read. If the kids felt vulnerable or if the questionnaire brought up some bad memories, they were given the names and numbers of their school counsellors and other services they could use. The development of this research has been going on for over four months- my boss met with the superintendent of the school divison, the principals, school boards, and permission was given to begin the research. The questionnaire and methods were cleared by ethics. Up to date, it's cost about 25,000 dollars with the work time, meetings, printing of questionnaires, and so on- and this is funded by Health Canada.

Yesterday we were going to begin the second day of the surveying. We left at 7 to drive to a community about an hour north of here. Just outside of the town we got a cel phone call from my boss, saying she recieved an email from the superintendant of the school division. He apparently withdrew his permission to do the survey in the schools. No explanation was given other than some of the items in the survey were sensitive. He sent the email the night before. My boss offered to send him the questionnaire to read through before we began but he declined. He was at the presentations regarding the research. What this translates to: An angry parent spouted off to him and he pulled the survey. What is particularly disappointing is that in the schools that we were going to be doing in the following week, there was over a 60% return on the consent forms in the schools that already distributed them. Most of the principals that the admin. assistant spoke to yesterday were on board and very supportive of the research. So it's the will of the minority that wins in this case.

This whole fiasco is a great example of what I loosely call the 'Catholic' mentality. Stick your head in the sand, pretend all is fine and wonderful, and ignore what's really happening around you. The office here recieved so many complaints from parents regarding the content of the survey, particularly the drugs, sex and alcohol questions. Apparently their children are the Stepford children. Please! Unless I had a more liberal upbringing (which I scarcely believe), I knew what pot, sex, blow jobs and condoms were by the time I was 10. I, like almost all small town kids, was boozed for the first time when I was 14, at my freshie party. I knew of girls in other towns nearby that were getting abortions when they were in Grade 11. There were people in grades below me that were contracting venereal diseases. I doubt that there was a sudden turnaround in adolescent behaviour in this area in the time between I went to school and the present date.

There are more graphic and disturbing things on primetime television than were in this survey. The aim of these surveys was to help develop more relevant education and awareness programs and services for rural youth. Wouldn't it be a useful exercise to truly understand what the problems are before spending another couple million dollars on the 'crystal meth epidemic' in our prairie communities? And, for those idiots that believe that their children are unaware of the activities/issues that are brought up in the questionnaire, there were consent forms- don't sign it suhsuhstupid!

I guess blind ignorance helps parents sleep at night while their kids are out booze cruising and 'playing doctor'.

posted by angelina @ 7:19 AM

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