Survey sent out to community members raises questions
By Kendra Simpson
Many residents received a text message with a link to a survey on Wednesday afternoon containing questions about St. Joseph schools, though it did not come from the district.
One question inquired about “sexually explicit” and “pornographic” books in St. Joseph elementary school libraries.
The same question also said, “The school district is moving in an ultra-liberal direction” and “this must end.”
Other questions centered around classroom time for students and the district’s financial status.
The St. Joseph School District sent out an email to families ensuring that the survey did not come from the communications team.
“Many of the statements posed as questions about our district are false Legitimate surveys from the school district will come through official channels. Any district survey would clearly explain the objective,” the district said in a statement.
Sean Connors, a candidate for St. Joseph Board of Education, shared the survey question regarding library materials on a Facebook account, stating in the post, “This question is inciting doubt in our librarians and administrators ability to use state guidance of school age appropriate books.”
”I find it ironic that there is no specific titles mentioned,” Connors said to News-Press NOW. “It just puts the doubt out there … I trust the professional that the school district hires, you know, the librarians, the administrators and they’re going by … the state standards of our library books.”
The original text message did not indicate who sent out the survey or what it aimed to accomplish.
Multiple News-Press NOW reporters also received the link for the survey Wednesday afternoon. As of Friday, the survey is inactive.
”I don’t think it got the momentum that it wanted,” Connors said. “I think there are enough people that went, ‘What’s this?’ So it wasn’t accurate and they probably didn’t get the response they wanted.”
