College course asks Florida high school students about their sexuality in controversial assignment: report

Fox News

2 days ago

Florida high school students taking a course at a local college were reportedly assigned to complete a sexuality-focused questionnaire that asked if they were gay and blamed heterosexuals for overpopulating the planet.
The course and sexually focused questionnaire was part of a Miami-Dade College course offered to high school students, The Daily Wire reported. Titled "Preparing for Student Success," the course was designed for students to develop academic goals and come up with strategies to succeed in college and was offered in Miami-Dade County, the news outlet stated.
However, the students were asked a series of questions that included "What do you think caused your heterosexuality?" "Is it possible that being straight is just a phase you may grow out of?" and "Considering the menace of hunger and overpopulation, could the human race survive if everyone were straight like yourself?"
Other questions asked: "When and how did you decide you were straight?" "Is it possible that your heterosexuality stems from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex?" "There seem to be many unhappy heterosexuals. Techniques have been developed that might enable you to change your sexual orientation. Have you considered changing?" and "Why do straights place so much emphasis on sex?"
"It's not normal. I mean, imagine if a person, anyone, goes close to your son and asks him these questions, I'd call the police," one concerned mother whose son was enrolled in the class told The Daily Wire. "It's perversion. Why are you talking about their sexuality to 15-year-old boys or girls? It's absolutely sick. It's sick."
Fox News Digital has reached out to the college.
According to the course description, the class teaches college success strategies, goal-setting, learning style assessments as well as general and discipline-specific study skills in the context of various theoretical, practical, and experiential perspectives.
The questions came from the textbook "POWER: Strategies for Success in College and Life" by Robert Feldman, a senior research associate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The questionnaire came from the work of Martin Rochlin, a gay-rights activist and founding member of the Gay and Lesbian Center of Los Angeles who developed the "Heterosexual Questionnaire" in 1972, the news report said.
The college told The Daily Wire that it determined the assignment will no longer be used after a review.
"Miami-Dade College is committed to maintaining a safe, respectful, and academically sound learning environment for all students," the college told The Daily Wire. "In response to concerns raised about a classroom assignment, we have conducted a thorough review of the assignment, and it will no longer be used. We expect all those who teach to uphold these standards and will ensure any necessary adjustments are made."
The mother told the outlet that a separate questionnaire asked the students about diversity. One activity encouraged them to determine the diversity of their campus by getting statistics of how many racial minorities attend their school; another encouraged them to "check your stereotype quotient." That included questions like, "If you found out that a star professional football player is gay, would you be surprised?"