In the latest shameful chapter of public school overreach, Burlington Public Schools (BPS) in Massachusetts has landed in hot water for trampling parental rights and exposing middle schoolers to sexually explicit content without permission.
Despite parents opting their children out, Marshall Simonds Middle School administered the 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey to students as young as 11—peppering them with deeply inappropriate questions about sexual behavior, including detailed definitions of acts no minor should ever be forced to read about in a taxpayer-funded institution.
The so-called “health survey,” pushed under the guise of a CDC initiative, crossed every line of decency. While the school claimed it was merely gathering data on substance abuse and gender identity, parents soon found out the ugly truth: questions describing sexual acts in graphic detail were handed to innocent children whose families had explicitly said no.
“I felt absolutely sick,” said Burlington mother Adrianne Simeone, who had opted her 13-year-old son out. “We have conversations about biology at home, but exposing my child to discussions about things like sex toys? That’s not education—that’s indoctrination.”
Simeone, along with fellow parent David Hanafin, has filed federal complaints with the U.S. Department of Education, supported by the Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center (MLLC), an organization that defends free speech, religious liberty, and parental rights. Their accusation is clear: Burlington Public Schools violated the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, a federal law requiring schools to respect parental authority on sensitive topics.
But it gets worse. Some students—who bravely protested—were still forced to complete the survey because their names were missing from the opt-out list. Teachers reportedly did not even inform students the survey was voluntary.
Hanafin, a father of six, didn’t mince words. “We don’t send our kids to school to have their innocence stripped away. Teach them reading, writing, math—and send them home. We’ll handle the moral upbringing.”
His outrage is justified. One of his daughters—still young enough to write letters to Santa—was subjected to explicit questions intended for mature adults. “What kind of society looks at an 11-year-old child and thinks this is appropriate?” Hanafin asked.
Even more troubling, this is not an isolated incident. Parents like Simeone point to a disturbing pattern: radical gender ideology clubs quietly promoted without parental notification, and now explicit surveys disguised as “health initiatives.”
At an April 1st school board meeting, Superintendent Eric Conti offered a weak apology, claiming it was a “mistake.” Yet, parents and watchdog groups dispute his damage control narrative, especially after he insisted only four opt-out cases were mishandled—a number many say grossly underestimates the real harm.
Recognizing the gravity of the situation, the Burlington School Committee unanimously voted to suspend all student surveys until new protections for families are implemented and pulled all funding for the outside contractor, JSI, that helped develop the explicit materials.
And yet, not all voices at the meeting were concerned. Incredibly, one parent defended the survey, calling it merely “surprising” and praising it for “inclusion.” For most parents, the idea that exposing 11-year-olds to adult sexual content in the name of diversity is stomach-turning.
Fortunately, not everyone is buying the excuses. As Simeone put it: “Parents have a right to know exactly what’s being pushed on their children. This incident should wake up every family in America.”
Indeed, this battle is about much more than one school district—it’s a warning to every community: if parents don’t demand transparency and reclaim control of their children’s education, radicals will fill the vacuum.
Department of Education spokeswoman Julie Hartman nailed it when she declared: “Children do not belong to the government; they belong to parents.”
The Trump administration has made it clear: parental rights are not negotiable. Schools that think they can bypass families and introduce explicit content to children without consequence are about to find out the hard way.
