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April 18, 2025 19 mins
Some local parents took to filing federal complaints against Burlington Public Schools over detailed sex questions on a middle school “Youth Risk Behavior Survey” that was given to their children despite opting out of the survey. The parents filing the complaint argue that the definitions of various sexual activities mentioned in the survey were too graphic for some students as young as 11. We discussed parental rights and what parents are entitled to regarding their children's education.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZ Constance New Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
If you missed the nine o'clock hour, are you going
to have to listen to it again on Nightside on Demand?
We're talking And by the way, those of you in Burlington,
you can go to Knightside on Demand, take the hour
down and share it with your friends. This is we're
talking about the twenty twenty five Burlington Middle School survey.
Is a is a Globe article today is how we
found out about it, To be really honest with you,
and I want to hats off to the Globe and

(00:28):
also hats off to the reporter on the story, James Vasnez,
where they ask kids in the sixth, seventh and eighth
grade some pretty out out there questions dealing with their
quote unquote sexuality and what sort of sexual activity they
had engaged in These just kids in the sixth, seventh
and eighth grade, and whether or not they had used

(00:50):
toys or props, either vaginally or anally. And now some
parents had opted out of this, which is understandable, but
I guess the kids were still subjected to it. So
I want to listen to what parents say. Uh, and
I have a two Burlington parents lined up who've been
very patient. I'm going to go right to them. Let
me go to Cheryl and Burlington. Cheryl, I need to

(01:11):
listen to what you have to say. You go right ahead.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Hi, thank you so much for having us on. I
appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
So my situation is a little different. My husband did
opt my son out of the survey, but they kept
him in the classroom while his friends were taking the survey,
and his friends were very confused. My son said, you know,
he felt very uncomfortable being in the class. But then

(01:38):
one of his friends turned to him and said, you know, bro,
what's on this paper? What is this question? And my
son was like, I don't know. Why don't you google it?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
So I asked you that's what they wanted the kids
to do.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah, I don't know, but I my son, well, what
kind of question was it? I mean, was it about alcohol?
Is it about tobacco?

Speaker 4 (02:06):
You know?

Speaker 3 (02:06):
What was it about your gender? He's like, no, mommy,
I think it was a sexual question. So these kids,
they don't know anything like that right now. They're just
in sixth grade. All they want to do is play
video games.

Speaker 5 (02:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah. Well the other thing too, is This is valuable
teaching time. We find out that our kids are behind
in math, they're behind in reading, they're behind in English.
So let's give them a ninety page questionnaire about sex
toys in part exactly Okay, And as I say, I
hope that you folks in Burlington rise up. Parents. Eighty

(02:41):
percent of the people in Burlington are going to agree
with you when they read this survey that it is
that it is way over the top.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
I mean, I grew up in Burlington and we moved
into the house that we have now in Burlington because
I was very happy with our school system. You know,
I've very far in life. I was very happy, and
I'm shattered by just what is happening in the school
system now. It's just inappropriate and.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Get involved politically, Cheryl. I can't tell you it'll be
the most satisfying thing you've ever done, because you're standing
up for your kids and you're standing up for your
rights as a parent. Thank you so much for calling.
Please listen to this show any night that we can,
that we can help you out in any way. That
is what Nightside is, at least as long as I'm

(03:32):
running this program. What it's all about and that is
dealing with local issues that affect local families.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Thank you so much, Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Please listen, go listen to this tomorrow and Night's out
and demand. You can pull it down. It's on a website,
it's in a podcast form, and share it with your friends.
Let me go to Jason in Burlington. Jason, you're next
on Nightside. Go right ahead.

Speaker 6 (03:52):
Hi, Dan, thank you, thank you for taking the time
with us. Just to echo Cheryl, I'm actually also a
town meeting member in Burlington. You had asked about the recall.
They had actually got brought up at a previous town meeting.
They do not have We do not have a recall
in our charter right now.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Okay, well that gives you more time to get ready
for the next election.

Speaker 6 (04:16):
Yeah, and we are you know, be You know, people
keep beating the drum about the sexual questions. While those
were awful, and I agree absolutely one, the other thing
that kept come the other questions in the survey. I
don't know if you went over all of them, but
I was, you know, during the test month, what flavors
of tobacco did you use? And you know, it's kind

(04:36):
of leading the kids to say, well, I don't use tobacco,
should I be?

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Oh yeah, sure, yeah I agree.

Speaker 6 (04:44):
And I also I also coach in the town here too.
I coach these kids. I mean, my son's in seventh grade,
so I coached the seventh and eighth graders and that,
you know, after this came out, they were talking about it,
and someone were saying, like, we were asking these teachers
questions about this stuff just to make them uncomfortable. Oh,
I mean the kids the frame of moment to actually

(05:06):
ask that.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
You know, well, it also comes down to who raises
your kids, and what values are instilled in your kids,
and what are they exposed to win. When it's as
simple as that you don't expose kids in the sixth
grade to calculus because frankly, they're not ready for calculus. Okay,
it's as simple as that you don't have kids in
the sixth grade read and discuss Shakespeare because they're not

(05:30):
prepared to deal with Shakespeare. And it's it's it is infuriating.
It is infuriating that within these school boards that all
you need is one or two progressives who say, well,
let's do this. Let's have a survey on what type
of sexual perversity our children might be engaged in. It

(05:53):
kind of excites me to think about what might they
might be doing out there. I think we should know,
don't you, Fred Oh, I mean yeah, it's insane. It's insane.

Speaker 6 (06:04):
One positive point I would like to point out to
this too, is we have a new middle school principal.
I don't know if you want me to say his name, but.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Unless you want to say something complimentary about him, go ahead.

Speaker 6 (06:16):
No, it's very complimentary to Nick Mahon. Every parent I've
talked to has they that has reached out to him.
He's been very in front of this and trying, you know,
trying to get to.

Speaker 5 (06:27):
The bottom of it.

Speaker 6 (06:28):
He's not shying away from anything like the like the
superintendent you know, with with accountability as well.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
If any of you know him, if any of you
know him, reach out to him. I'd love to have
him on the show. He can take phone calls. Maybe
he should be the superintendent.

Speaker 6 (06:48):
Well maybe, I mean. So this this actually happened two
years ago, and we had asked for an option to
opt into this survey. My son was in fifth grade
at the time, but I saw this coming and with
the they sent out a thing and you know, we
got one notification. I think you've probably been told that
already too.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yep, but it you know, we what they what they
do is they're they're control freaks. They play games, and
it's and what happens is the poor teachers have to
go along with it. And all you have to do
is elect two or three members of the school committee
who are going to say this is ridiculous. This is like,
I use the analogy, It's like, well, well, let's teach
Shakespeare in the third grade. Seriously, let's teach calculus to

(07:30):
the third grade. Yoh yeah, but that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
And you know, if you want to do something like
this in high school, that's a different argument. This is
a middle school survey. Jason, thank you much. Please get active.
You sound like me coaching kids and stuff, but at
the same time, so important, so important activate get active.
Thanks Jason, and thank you for listening. Tonight's I keep

(07:54):
calling the show. Thank you. I'm going to keep rolling here,
going to try to get everybody in and then we
will change top in a moment. Let me go to
Mike and Norwell, Mike, you're next on NI Saga right ahead.

Speaker 7 (08:04):
Yeah, I just want to echo what one woman said
that let me think what she said, Oh that is
given by the grant. I think that's what might be
driving this grant money because I know and I'm not
sure really grooming is the right word, because why would
anymen in this group and you want to groom the kids.

(08:24):
I mean, but maybe, like you said, they are getting
some excitement out of it.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
But yeah, I'm not saying let me be very clear,
I don't think that they are grooming because they want
to somehow take a bit. No, that's that's an improper,
uh interpretation of it. I think that there are people
who are simply more progressive than the community and they're
going to say, Okay, well, these kids should be exposed

(08:48):
to this, you know, at an earlier age, because they're
talking about it and we want to make sure everybody
discusses it. Now. There's some questions on the survey that
deal with alcohol use, which I think is legit intimate
because if they find out that there's a problem within
the school system, that's a that's legitimate to bring the
sexual questions in. That's a different issue in my opinion,

(09:09):
And the analogy I use is why don't you teach
calculus to kids in the third grade, because when you
start talking about sex, toys and stuff like that, you
weigh over the heads of six of kids in the
UH in the sixth and seventh and eighth grade. Now
someone's going to say, oh, Dan, you don't know what
you're talking about. I'm telling you I have a pretty
good idea about what kids know about. And also it's

(09:32):
a waste of time because these kids they're behind in reading, math, English,
And I don't care. What the what, what the what?
The surveys say, this is the this will waste of time.
This uppuds of ninety questions here. It's insane. In my opinion,
I agree it's up to the parents to take control
of their school system. They pay for it, their kids
are educated in it. They should they should decide what

(09:55):
is discussed UH and how it's discussed.

Speaker 8 (09:58):
And that's one is show that I want to drive home.
During our entire elections, basically everybody runs unopposed. And one
of the select Word members said he said this more
than once. If you don't like what we're doing, their
voters out, Well, I really want to get up there
and say, how can I vote you out when you're
always running unopposed.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Well, you know how you can vote them out. Put
your name on the ballot, get to your friends, and
run a campaign against them. It's like all the members
of Congress who always get re elected. You know, we
talk about term limits. We do have term limits every
two years. But what happens and I've said this before
and I'll say it again, you have no clue. Most
people have no clue what their congressman is voting for against,

(10:38):
or what this selectman is voting for against, because they're
too busy trying to work and pay taxes. They see
the congressman once a year at the diner on a
Saturday morning, and the congressman comes around in a patterman
back like they Mike, Mike, how Hi, wah whaah blah,
everything's going, Hey, how's everything? And the people go home
and they say, you know, or who call me by

(11:00):
my first name? The congress went from frof. So you
know that's how they do it. The power of the incumbency.
Go run against and you can do it. You can, Mike,
put your name in the ballot, get some friends, get
on the ballot, and you know what a lot of
these people who are incumbents. They don't have the backbone
to run for reelection, trust me on that. Okay, all right,

(11:23):
all right, thank you, Thanks, Thanks Mike. Talk to you soon. Okay,
quick break, coming right back. I think we're gonna wrap
this up at ten thirty, and we're going to talk
about what's going on down in El Salvador for at
least a half an hour. Back on Nightside, I got
Lola and I got Ed, and that's probably gonna be
in on this. At ten thirty, we will break and
switch topic. Coming back on Nightside.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
If you're on Night Side with Dan Ray, I'm WAZ
Boston's News Radio.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Because keep Rowland. Are going to go to Lola in
San Diego. Lola actually had believe had read about this
story in San Diego. Hi, Lola, how are you? Lola?
We got to put Lola on hold. If she's not ready, Rob,
let's go to Eden Wooster ed your next night Sager right.

Speaker 5 (12:07):
Ahead by Dan. Public opinion is only going to matter
on this if people lose their jobs, either by not
getting re elected or by in the case of the superintendent,
getting fired, and if the gentleman had called it a
few minutes ago and said there's no recall provision in
the town charter of the town by laws will light

(12:28):
a fire under the Board of Selectmen to put one in,
you know, I mean, yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
Well, I guess you even if. But first of all,
if there isn't, that's the issue for the next campaign.
The words you say, we want to run, and one
of the issues we want is a recall petition. So
if we don't do the jil you know, I mean,
running for politics is not brain surgery. It's not flying airplanes.

(12:56):
It's pretty straightforward and simple stuff.

Speaker 5 (12:59):
And this is, if I can say something else, this
is why people want the Department of federal Department of
Education eliminated. A lot of this grant money in quotation
marks is not private. It's federal grant money that gets
routed to these local school districts through government agencies, and

(13:19):
it's basically tax dollars, federal tax dollars.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, no, I totally get it. I totally agree with you,
and people have to. It's got to be able to
step up. You know. What will happen is a certain
number of people will say I'm going to take my
kids out of school and going to put them in
a parochial school or a private school. Well, that's a
good thing, but it doesn't leave the It then leaves
your neighbors, the kids. If you have the money to

(13:46):
do that, great, you're still paying your taxes for the
public school. At that point, you're giving up. You're throwing
your hands up and say take my tax money and
I'll go pay for private school. I would say, keep
your kid in the school. Explain to the y what's
going on. And I think it's interesting that they that
they made these kids sit in the school. That's an
effort to embarrass these kids. Because if you're sitting there

(14:10):
and and the other kids are taking the test, this questionnaire,
every the other kids, Hey Billy, how come are you
are taking this? You know what? What I give man
enough to take the test. It subjects Billy and others
to the potential ridicule. But they do that intentionally. If
if just think of it, remember when there was when
when there would be one kid in the class that

(14:31):
doesn't want to do the pledge of allegiance, and you'd say, well,
allow the kid to, you know, leave the classroom. All
count do that, because then the child would be subjected
to harassment by their friends. They got the system rigged,
and they got the system rigged.

Speaker 5 (14:45):
And also they think they should rule over us.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
They don't care what because they're smarter. They smarter than you,
and they're smarter than me. That's why they think that.
And and it also they're able to virtue signal. And well,
we're so progressive. We want our children to know about
sex toys. And that's that's how progressive we are, aren't
we wonderful? We're just letting our children know sex toys.

(15:11):
You know. Uh, we're gonna have them do Shakespeare in
the sixth grade and calculus, and we're gonna do you know,
some some seminars on sex toys. We're gonna bring sex
toys in and and teach teach sex toys to the
fourth and fifth graders too, so they'll be ready to
deal with sex toys in the sixth grade. These people
are insane ed and they're running the school systems.

Speaker 5 (15:34):
But they think they are our masters, and they don't
care what we think. And unless they get fired or
get don't get re elected, they don't care what we think.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
You got it, You got it, and I love your calls, man,
you know that. Okay, thank you so much. I think
so similarly. Thank you very much. All Right, I got
Lola back.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
Lola.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
We were looking for you. You weren't there, but your
back Go ahead, Lola.

Speaker 4 (15:55):
I was. There was a glitch in the phone. So
I'm over here in California. And you've said it more
than once. What happens in California ends up happening over there.
So in the school systems here, they are harboring the
children that want to transition and not telling the parents.

(16:17):
So you think they'll survey, ah, that this is what's
going on. If a kid thinks he's a girl, they
don't tell the parents. Hey, your kids questioning their sexuality
or their gender gender? Okay, because that's where it starts.
And I and I do personally have empathy for people

(16:40):
that are blond in the wrong body because the chromosome
wash or the hormonal wash you can cross at that point.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
At that point, the parents should be brought in. If
the school wants to be peripherally involved, that's great counseling.
You know, it has to be like a holistic approach, Okay,
but it's not.

Speaker 4 (16:59):
The parents of in the dock here. So I would say,
you want to so you have to stand for something.
Are you going to fall for nothing so.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
You fall for everything? Actually that.

Speaker 4 (17:16):
I'm so wound up with everything. So this is my suggestion.
Go through some standouts on a public sidewalk and just
keep moving and you can say your peace and start
exposing these people that do not have the best interest
in your children. I don't have children, and I'm concerned

(17:38):
because I'm like, what is going on? Every time I
turn around, I see wrong things happening. Corruption, Corruption is
alive and well and it's coming out. And I don't
want to, you know, Miranda off the road here, but
astrology and the planets have a lot to do with

(17:59):
what please don't.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah quite enough. Well, I'm sorry that I missed it before,
but I'm at ten thirty and I got to take
the news.

Speaker 4 (18:10):
I know the news. I know the news, and listen
to the news while you're you know, taking a break.
But yeah, let's let's get the party started and do standouts.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
All right. I'm with you on that. Thanks Lola. Good
advice from San Diego. Thank you much, thank you. I
have a great night. Thanks Lola. Look, we will take
some We're gonna change topics, okay, because I think I
don't want to beat the dead horse. I've said all
I won't need to say about this. We're going to
talk about the trip by the Maryland Senator down to

(18:41):
El Salvador to try to bring home the fellow who
was in the country illegally uh and who allegedly was
a member of MS thirteen. And we have some sound
from Senator Van Holland which I promoted tonight, so I
want to get your reaction to what he did and

(19:02):
what he had to say. And we will switch topics
right after the news here on a Sunday night, and
then we go to What grind You Gears at eleven.
And remember everyone has a hall pass that means even
if you're called earlier this week, you always can call
What Grinds Your Gears. We're coming back on Nightside right
after this
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