UNC Center for Health Equity Research Encourages Teens to Hide Names and Pronouns from Parents.
Teens will be paid $250 in gift cards for participating in a birth control Teen Advisory Board study.
The UNC School of Medicine Center for Health Equity Research is looking for teens to join their Teen Advisory Board. The following flyer was sent to Orange County Schools for distribution. It was approved by the school district’s Chief Public Information Officer to be emailed out to students and parents via PeachJar and posted to the district’s website. The flyer was also approved and shared with students and parents via Peachjar and emails at Durham Public Schools, Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools, and Alamance Burlington Schools. There was an additional flyer seeking caregivers to join a Caregiver Advisory Board study as well.
It is not disclosed on their flyer that participants of the Teen Advisory Board will make up the Contraceptive ACCESS Advisory Board. The goal of this project is to develop a training program called Contraceptive ACCESS for pediatricians to talk to young people about their birth control options. ACCESS stands for Adolescent Centered Counseling and Empowerment Skills for Success. To make sure pediatricians are given the right skills and information on birth control they put together the Teen Advisory Board, where teens will give feedback and guidance on the training materials for pediatricians. Members of the Teen Advisory Board will earn $50 gift cards per session for a total of $250 for full participation in monthly meetings in exchange for their input. The study will seek answers on broad questions like, “What do you want doctors to know about teens and how to talk to them about birth control?” And specific questions like, “Tell us the language you want doctors to know to give teens more freedom and control over birth control decisions.”
In order to qualify for the Teen Advisory Board study participants must be 15-19 years of age, “assigned” female at birth, and reside in North Carolina. Of concern, there is no mention of potential minor participants needing to obtain parental consent in order to join in the Teen Advisory Board study. Questions on the interest form are about days/times of availability for the study, permission to record audio during board meetings and personal questions about sex “assigned” at birth, gender identity, sexuality, race, age, and disabilities.
After the interest form is completed potential participants are directed to schedule a screening phone call with the Project Coordinator, Hailey Leiva. Parent permission is not needed to have the screening call. After the screening call potential participants will be considered for the Teen Advisory Board study based on responses given on the call and will be contacted if chosen.
In an email sent to an interested participant, Hailey Leiva stated there is no formal parental consent form that must be filled out. If selected, parents will be contacted to discuss the study and their child’s participation. If a teen participant does not want their parents to know about certain personal information that their parents are not aware of, like the teen’s preferred name and pronouns, then the research team will not disclose this to parents. The research team will use whichever name and pronouns the teen tells them to use with the parent and the name and pronouns they actually prefer when interacting in the study.
With the recent passing of NC legislation SB49, known as the Parents’ Bill of Rights, advertising and distributing a flyer in public schools that supports an event that circumvents parents is deceitful. SB49 was enacted to “enumerate the rights of parents to direct the upbringing, education, health care and mental health of their minor children.” Public school districts are required to abide by and implement SB49 into policy. One measure in the bill states, “An employee of the State who encourages, coerces, or attempts to encourage or coerce a child to withhold information from his or her parent may be subject to disciplinary action." The UNC School of Medicine Center for Health Equity Research is guilty of encouraging teens to withhold information from parents through their Teen Advisory Board research study. I find it disheartening to learn that school districts in NC are promoting research studies that in effect disregard the intention of the law. It sends a clear message that these school districts do not support the rights’ of parents in the upbringing of their children.