-Caveat Lector- .............................................................. Forwarded from the New Paradigms Project [Not Necessarily Endorsed]: From: ScanThisNews <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: ScanThisNews Recipients List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [FP] FW: Surveillance through Schools: Home Snoops Date: Monday, October 25, 1999 4:39 PM ====================================================================== SCAN THIS NEWS 10/25/99 -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, October 25, 1999 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Surveillance through Schools: Home Snoops Source: Washington Times http://www.WashTimes.com/opinion/ed1.html EDITORIAL Home snoops Most parents do not know it, but in the name of education, the federal government is out to grade the home life of the nation's school parents. In Pittsburgh, an uproar over governmental intrusion has begun in connection with a project called the Pittsburgh School-wide Intervention Model, or PSWIM for short. The project, which is partly funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, asks teachers to record the behavior of their pupils on everything "from fidgeting and humming to stealing, starting fires and forcing others into sex," reports Insight magazine. "Other elements of the process include giving students a page of photos of classmates and instructing them to put an 'X' next to the three they disliked most." Chaperoning school playground activities is one thing. Turning teachers into behavioral analysts is another. The researchers claim that identifying youngsters with problematic attitudes or behaviors will lower the dropout and unemployment rates and curb crime. But what this kind of oversight will really do is turn America's 110,000 public schools into mental health clinics and its 50 million public school students into guinea pigs. In the Pittsburgh program, youngsters were subjected to intense and personal interrogation at school, and some of those youngsters, including 5-year-olds, were coerced into discussing their sexuality. Some were questioned in rooms by teachers and researchers who were strangers to them, and they "were not allowed to leave the room until they had given the answers the researchers wanted," according to the Virginia-based American Center for Law and Justice, a public-interest law firm. One question asks youngsters: "Have you ever forced sex on anyone?" Pittsburgh parents, as you might imagine, are outraged at these secret probing sessions. At first, they were mystified by a change in their children's mood, then after learning of the PSWIM project, they were angry that such inappropriate lines of questioning were being conducted without their permission. Sandra Delaney, whose third-grade son participated in PSWIM, told Insight that "neither (the researchers nor the school) thought they needed parents' permission --or else they didn't care. . . . [I] still don't know who has information about my son or how it was interpreted." Truly disturbing as well is the fact that school systems around the country are considering similar projects as the Clinton administration pushes such invasive programs, programs funded by not just the Institute of Mental Health but also the U.S. Department of Education and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A project conducted by the University of Oregon, for example, is called Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), which focuses on students in kindergarten through third grade. Insight quotes Renee Bradley, a special education researcher with the U.S. Department of Education, as saying the Oregon project "is our biggest investment right now." Note the words "right now," because Education Secretary Richard Riley and Attorney General Janet Reno, no less, are urging Congress to appropriate $50 million in the FY 2001 budget to finance more experimental projects. Ms. Delaney, who now home-schools her son, and more than 70 other parents are not standing for it. They have filed a federal lawsuit against the Pittsburgh school district and the researchers, including the University of Pittsburgh's Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. That case is expected to go to trial in the spring. Meanwhile, California parents are in for an equally unpleasant surprise. California Gov. Gray Davis, who vowed to take a "common sense" approach on education reform, is considering signing legislation that would, in the words of the San Francisco-based Pacific Research Institute, "turn California school teachers into Big Brother's home snoops." The bill, which was authored by state Assemblywoman Nell Soto, Pomona Democrat, would allow schools to create home visitation programs and to compete for tens of thousands of dollars to fund them. The teachers purportedly would assess the home environment and lifestyles of the family to strengthen the bond between parent and child. Any reasonable parent, teacher or lawmaker must see the risk of turning teachers into snoops. It is an obvious invasion of privacy, and it would divert teachers' attention from their primary objective. Parents and teachers are the first to say that children should behave in school and should not be permitted to disrupt a school's academic setting. Still, old-fashioned discipline levied at home and at the hands of parents remains the most effective way to shape and, when necessary, reshape a child's behavior. 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