Fourth-graders told to hide ‘equity survey’ questions from parents
Thomas McDonald
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A Minnesota student and her mother expressed concern to their school board after her fourth-grade class was given an “equity survey,” and students were told not to tell their parents about the activity.
“During distance learning, I was asked to complete that equity survey. My teacher told me that I could not skip any questions even when I didn’t understand them. One question asked us what gender we identify with. I was very confused along with a lot of other classmates,” Fourth-grader Hayley Yasgar said while speaking at her local school board meeting.
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Haley says her fellow classmate asked the teacher if he could ask his mother to help him answer some of the questions he didn’t understand. According to Haley, the teacher told the students that they were not allowed to mention the survey to their parents.
“Being asked to hide this from my mom made me very uncomfortable like I was doing something wrong,” Haley told the school board. “I want the school board to know how uncomfortable and nervous this made me.”
Haley’s mother, Kelsey Yasgar, told Fox & Friends said that although parents were “informed that the equity audit was taking place, they were not informed on the date of the activity and not given other details.”
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She explained the lack of transparency from the school and Equity Alliance Minnesota, the third party that administered the survey, has caused a great deal of mistrust among parents. She claims parents were not informed of any of the questions included in the survey.
“I do want to say though I believe that this wasn’t a single case that her teacher made this decision. We had been informed that this came down from the administration and Equity Alliance of Minnesota instructed them to make sure the children did not share this information with their parents and that should pose a great concern in any parents’ eyes,” Kelsey said.
Kelsey added that she believes “equity” is the “mask that critical race theory hides behind” and that it is causing racial division among students nationwide.
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The Independent Chronicle reached out to the Sartell-St. Stephen School District for comment but did not immediately receive a response.