Fridae

Victorian education authorities has launched an official probe after receiving a flood of complaints protesting a 'suggestive' survey on homosexuality titled Attitudes About Homosexuality was given to 14-year-old students at Wodonga High School during a compulsory health class.

The questionnaire designed to "examine assumptions about sexuality" - asks respondents what caused their heterosexuality and whether it was possible they needed a same-sex lover to be fulfilled.

According to the Melbourne Herald Sun, the survey, which has since been scrapped from the class, included questions such as "If you have never slept with a person of the same sex, it possible that all you need is a good lesbian/gay lover?" and "What do women and men do in bed together? How can they truly know how to please each other being so anatomically different?"

It also asked why heterosexuals "feel compelled to seduce others into their lifestyle", and said that since most child molesters were heterosexual "do you consider it safe to expose children to heterosexual teachers?"

Other questions in the 17-question survey included, "How can you become a whole person if you limit yourself to compulsive and exclusive heterosexual behaviour?" and "It is possible that your heterosexuality stems from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex?"

Premier Steve Bracks said the Department of Education's regional office would investigate the incident.

"I understand it was not meant to be distributed and our regional office will be examining that pretty closely," Mr Bracks said on Melbourne's 3AW radio.

A spokesman for Education Minister Lynne Kosky said both the teacher and the principal of the school would be counselled over the incident.

Department of Education spokesman Paul Barber said the survey was created as a training resource for teachers conducting the health education course and was never meant to be distributed to students.

"The teacher who was running the course went to hospital and a trainee teacher took over her class and it appears grabbed this (survey) from their manual thinking it was part of the course," Mr Barber said.

Wodonga High principal Peter Maclean has however denied the claim that the survey was designed solely for teacher education. He is standing by a teacher's decision to hand out the survey, saying it was part of the recommended curriculum.

Mr Maclean said the survey, had been handed out at a professional development course run by the federally funded Family Planning Victoria. He added that several of the school's teachers, who attended the course, were given clear instruction that the survey was appropriate for students from Year 9 upwards.

Jan Watson, from Victoria's Department of Education and Training, said in The Herald Sun that the survey, which some parents labelled "appalling and inappropriate," had been "taken out of context" by the school and claimed it was designed to be used "in the context of a two-day training program for teachers."

Ms Watson said the package was developed by the Australian Centre for Research to aid teachers confronted by students who came to them with difficult questions about sexuality.

The questionnaire was also designed partly in response to a survey that revealed 8 percent of senior secondary students didn't believe they were exclusively heterosexual. She said her experience suggested Year 9 students would not have been overly disturbed by the content of the questionnaire.

"I would find it hard to believe any kids would be damaged by it," she said. "But I genuinely accept parents' concerns."

The course, the Talking Sexual Program, is federally funded and runs at over 200 secondary schools in Victoria, he said.