Lancaster Co. parents raise concerns about school survey on sexual assault

LANCASTER COUNTY, S.C. — A controversial survey in Lancaster County is shining a light on sexual assault by students.

The survey puts students into that a sexual assault scenario.

One question asks students what they would do if they saw boys trying to rape a girl who had passed out.

Some parents said the survey goes too far and they weren't notified.

"I was appalled,” parent Jennifer McAteer said.

McAteer said she received a text message from her son, a student at Lancaster High School, of a photo of the survey.

The survey is titled “Questions about dating and relationships.”

The survey asks students if it's OK to hit a girlfriend or boyfriend if they did something to make them mad.

Then a question came up: “You're at a party and a girl there is drunk and passed out, some boys decide to take her to a bedroom and take turns having sex with the young lady. What would you do?”

The answers include calling police, parents, watching, joining in or stopping them.

The survey was written at the Lancaster County School District office and has been distributed at all four high schools in the county.

Student Logan McAteer said everyone around him reacted to the questions.

"Once everybody got to that question, it was like, ‘Hold up. What? It was shocking,” he said.

Jennifer McAteer posted the survey to Facebook, and several of her friends commented, calling it ridiculous, shocking and not up to the schools.

Paul McKenzie, who wrote that question as research for Lancaster Schools and makes surveys to help get federal grants, said they are aimed at studying the attitudes of students.

He’s done other surveys on bullying and teen pregnancy, and said the results will help create new programs that teach appropriate responses.

"Asking the question about this isn't designed to condone it at all,” McKenzie said. “It really is designed to raise up our kids to be leaders, and take a stand against that very behavior."

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