31 regulation was the federal Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment : 34CFR PART 98 — STUDENT RIGHTS IN RESEARCH , EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMS , AND TESTING ( You can find the regulation on Cornell Law ’ s website ).
31 regulation was the federal Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment : 34CFR PART 98 — STUDENT RIGHTS IN RESEARCH , EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMS , AND TESTING ( You can find the regulation on Cornell Law ’ s website ).
Section 98.4 of that regulation essentially guarantees parents the right to opt their children out of research concerning political affiliation , mental and psychological problems , sexual behavior and attitudes , illegal , anti-social , self-incriminating and demeaning behavior , critical appraisals of family members , legally recognized privileged relationships and income . Wow .
Does that regulation , however , apply to surveys created and conducted by the scholastic press ? “ The key is whether the survey is actually administered by the school and participation is , to use the statutory term , ‘ required ’,” explained Frank LoMonte , executive director of the Student Press Law Center . “ If it is an optional survey not administered under the authority of school officials , then it ’ s not covered by the federal act . At a public school , students have the constitutionally protected right to engage in non-disruptive conversations with each other , and that includes asking questions . As long as it ’ s a student-to-student conversation and the surveying process is not itself disruptive — students aren ’ t being coerced to participate or physically accosted to participate — the school would have no more authority to interfere with that interchange than with any other non-disruptive conversation .”
In the case of my students ’ survey regarding alcohol use ( which ran next to an unsigned editorial warning of the dangers of teen alcohol use ) this was a potential problem . For decades , my students have carefully selected classes to statistically represent the student body and have asked the teachers of those classes to hand out and collect the surveys .
According to LoMonte , this might qualify them as schoolsponsored research and cause the regulations under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment to apply .
“ The students should take
Infographic by Northern High School ’ s Patriot Press News Magazine