Brooklyn’s prestigious Poly Prep Country Day School pried into its students lives with a “diversity and inclusion” questionnaire, posing invasive queries on their sexual orientation, political beliefs and pride in their race.
The 62-page “DEIB Climate Survey” — which went to students in grades 5 to 12 — also asked kids about their parents’ incomes, and whether they had made financial donations to the Dyker Heights school, where tuition is as much as $57,000 a year.
DEIB stands for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging and students were also asked whether they felt happy about being members of their social class, felt good about people from their racial and ethnic background and whether certain racial or ethnic groups have fewer chances to get ahead.
The Virginia-based advocacy group Parents Defending Education, which posted the survey online, said it had received complaints about it from angry Poly Prep parents.
“Poly Prep parents had expressed outrage to school administrators over the survey,” the group said on its site. “Parents reported their discomfort with their children being expected to divulge personal information that they may not have, may not understand, and may not want to share.”
The group also contended that “concerns centered around privacy, age-inappropriateness, and whether students are unwittingly being used as ‘guinea pigs’ for a researcher’s academic inquiry projects.”
The survey was crafted by Omari W. Keeles, Poly Prep’s director of diversity, equity, and inclusion, who collaborated with researchers at Columbia University and the University of Michigan.
“We did this survey because we are always working to improve our culture of inclusion and belonging, and assessment is part of that process,” said Jennifer Slomack, a Poly Prep spokesman.
She said the survey results were anonymous and that students were asked to provide their email addresses only to access the questionnaire.
After the parental outcry, Poly Prep headmaster Audrius Barzdukas claimed in a May note to parents that multiple issues “made the data unreliable.”
“Those issues included final edits not being included in the version that was administered and significant variability in how the survey was facilitated,” he said.
He said the results had been deleted and apologized for any “confusion and discomfort this survey caused.”
Barzdukas last fall riled up families when he canceled up families when he canceled the school’s well liked football coach, claiming the program resulted in a “toxic culture.” He fired veteran coach Kevin Fountaine, just as an October practice session started, shocking students and staff.
The school, which also has a campus in Park Slope, counts former Dolphins coach Brian Flores and ex-Knick Joakim Noah among its grads. Jon Bon Jovi’s son Jesse Bongiovi played football and lacrosse there.
