Michigan Ed Dept asks high schoolers about sex, drug habits

Howell Public Schools and 49 other school districts in the state gave their students surveys from the Michigan Department of Education, and those surveys included intimate sexual questions.

The 2025 Michigan High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey asked about students’ weight “without shoes,” alcohol and drug use, and their sexual history, which included the following questions:

• Have you ever had intercourse?

• Over the course of your life, how many sexual partners have you had?

• How many sexual partners have you had in the past three months?

• The first time you had sexual intercourse, how many years younger or older than you was your partner?

The survey also asked students about the food they ate, their suicidal tendencies, and their sexual and gender identity.

Thomas Gould, director of communications for Howell Public Schools, confirmed that the survey was administered to six classes at Howell High School. An opt-out form was sent home to parents, he told Michigan Capitol Confidential, but the survey was not conducted according to the district’s standard process.

“Two weeks ago, a survey from the Michigan Department of Education was administered to six classes at Howell High School,” Gould told CapCon.

Howell High School officials reviewed the survey before it was administered, Gould said. But, neither the district administration nor the Howell Board of Education’s committee on instruction improvement and innovation reviewed it, he said.

High school officials believed that the state education department required the survey, but this was not correct, Gould said. The district is developing a formal process for administering external surveys to students, he added. The process ensure there are multiple levels of review and parents will have ample time to see the survey and decide whether to let their children participate.

Page from the Michigan High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey | Michigan Capitol Confidential

Kelly Ralko, a parent of an autistic 11th grader who took the survey, told CapCon in an email that she wasn’t notified in advance because her son was absent the day the opt-out forms were sent home.

The principal of Howell High School, Jason Schrock, told Ralko via email that students in various grades were selected randomly to complete the survey.

The district should have obtained parental consent through an opt-in form, Ralko told CapCon, and parents should have been given a chance to review questions dealing with sensitive topics.

“Even though (my son) was absent, the teacher did not follow up upon his return,” Ralko said.

The survey has been given to select schools nationally for 25 years, Bob Wheaton, director of public affairs at the Michigan Department of Education, said in an email to CapCon.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention select schools to participate to provide a statistically valid sample of students from around the state,” Wheaton wrote. The state education department then contacts those schools to see if they would like to participate.