Howell Public Schools and 49 other school districts in the state gave their students surveys that 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 in grades 7, 9, and 11 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 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 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.

A Michigan township is using a new ordinance to block a natural burial business six months after losing to the cemetery’s owners in court.

Peter and Annica Quakenbush bought a 20-acre property housing a white oak and white pine forest before Brooks Township banned new cemeteries in June 2023.

The couple sued and won in court, Michigan Capitol Confidential previously reported, but the township in Newaygo County banned the “green” cemetery via zoning laws.

The 3,500-population township 48 miles north of Grand Rapids wants to avoid thousands of dead bodies possibly contaminating the nearby Muskegon River and local wells, Cory Nelson, Brook Township’s supervisor, told CapCon in a phone interview.

“There is no data on what green cemeteries, what 3,000 dead bodies would do that potentially have chemotherapy, immunotherapy, high blood pressure meds, high cholesterol meds, fake joints — all these things that we put in our body today that would go into the ground,” Nelson said.

In green cemeteries, human remains are buried between three-and-a-half feet and four feet under the surface without embalming fluids, according to the Green Burial Council. Burials in these cemeteries may use a container, or a wooden or wicker casket. Traditional cemeteries often bury bodies at least six feet under the ground in a vault, which is a stone or concrete container surrounding a casket. There were about 445 green burial cemeteries and burial grounds in the United States and Canada as of Dec. 13, 2023, according to NHfuneral.org, a resource for those interested in green burials.

“When we would bury horses and cows, if you didn’t put those things six feet or deeper, the coyotes, the bears, will tear into that stuff and it will unearth,” said Nelson, who grew up on a nearby farm.

Michigan cities such as Flint have a history of contaminating water supplies, Nelson said, adding that Brooks Township allows cemeteries in the zoning district R1, which covers more than half the township.

Courtesy of Brooks Township

District Health Department #10 gave an initial OK for the cemetery, according to a Feb. 17 letter signed by Health Officer Kevin Hughes. But the cemetery still needs to meet zoning rules.

“The above process is NOT a final approval, but rather only a piece of the process to getting a cemetery started,” the letter said.

Courtesy of District Health Department #10

Communities protect their groundwater with land use planning, said Jason Berndt, environmental quality specialist for drinking water at the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.

“Land use planning and local ordinances are local options to help reduce these risks to the drinking water sources,” Berndt told CapCon in an email.

The Quackenbushes’ lawyer said the zoning ban aims to bury their business.

“This is a blatant attempt by the township to rob Peter and Annica of their victory — to stop them from opening their dream business,” Katrin Marquez, an attorney for the nonprofit public interest law firm Institute for Justice, said in a news release.

The federal government investigated how a traditional cemetery affected groundwater quality within the Lansing Wellhead Protection Area in 2016-2017. Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey monitored nearby wells and found high concentrations of trace metals, including arsenic, manganese and aluminum.

Research on how green cemeteries affect water quality is limited, Angela K. Brennan, an author of the Lansing study, told CapCon in an email.

“Overall, there has been limited research conducted on the effect of cemeteries on water quality in the United States, and even more limited research on the effect of ‘green’ cemeteries on water quality,” Brennan wrote. “It is likely that the data do not exist to make a thorough comparison.”

The Brooks Township ordinance points to the significant amount of land cemeteries take up and claims the business could lower property values and attract vandalism.