Shelter Island schools chief apologizes, cancels lesson featuring 'totally inappropriate' questions
Shelter Island schools Superintendent Brian Doelger last year. He said the lesson was presented by a first-year guidance counselor in gym classes.
Credit: Randee Daddona
The head of the Shelter Island school district is apologizing for a lesson for grades 6 through 12 that was quickly canceled after parents complained that students were asked personal questions about their sexual preferences and whether they had been sexually abused.
Schools Superintendent Brian Doelger said the lesson was inappropriate and was shut down soon after it began a few weeks ago. He then sent an apology letter to parents.
“I apologize for any heartache this has caused,” Doelger said in the letter. “I can assure you a lesson like this will not happen again.”
The lesson was presented by a first-year guidance counselor in gym classes, with students in various grades attending different sessions, Doelger said. He provided Newsday with a copy of the questions.
Students in grades 6 and 7 were asked to line up and step forward if any of the following statements pertained to them. The guidance counselor chose from a list of about 50 questions. The questions included whether they grew up in a family with alcohol or drug abuse.
In separate sessions, students in grades 8 through 12 received similar questions. But their questions also included whether they were comfortable with homosexuality, whether they were a survivor of sexual abuse, and whether they were gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
The lesson was supposed to be split into two separate days, but school officials shut it down early in the second day after parents complained, Doelger said.
Angry parents railed against the lesson during the Jan. 17 school board meeting, saying their children were upset by the questions. Some said they worried the lesson was aimed at politically steering the students.
Doelger said the lesson was intended to teach students empathy, and that he did not know about the content beforehand. He said it was not intended to promote any political view. Students also were asked numerous questions that didn’t stir controversy, such as whether they came from a large city or town, if their family took a vacation this winter, and if they have pets.
"We are trying to find ways to help our secondary students come out of the pandemic, get along better with each other, socialize more, and in general be happier,” he wrote in the letter. ”As we continue in this effort, any future lesson will be sent home to you before the lesson so that you are aware.”
Doelger declined to say whether the counselor who presented the lesson faced any disciplinary action.
“I think some questions delved too deep,” Doelger said in an interview. “Some questions were totally inappropriate.”
Thomas Cronin, a parent who spoke during the school board meeting, said he wanted to know why such personal family matters were being discussed at school, especially without parental permission, according to the minutes of the meeting.
Cronin accused the school of pushing a “woke” political agenda and that teachers were pushing their beliefs on children. Cronin asked for the resignation of the counselor who gave the lesson, the minutes said.
Ronald Jernick, another parent, said that whoever approved the lesson failed, and that going forward, his daughter would no longer meet with that guidance counselor without a parent present, the minutes said.
Craig Schneider is a Long Island native and Stony Brook University alumnus. He joined Newsday as a general assignment reporter in January 2018 after 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
