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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Regional Health Board Agrees To Mail Sex Survey To 5,000 Households

The Spokane Regional Health Board agreed Thursday to mail a sex survey to 5,000 homes.

The $10,000 survey, to be answered by teens and adults, is designed to determine how much people know about peer pressure and other reasons teens have sex.

Written by a committee representing a variety of social service groups, it doesn’t ask about the respondents’ own sex life.

Some health board members balked in February when they first saw the survey. County Commissioner Phil Harris called it “intrusive,” and Commissioner Kate McCaslin said she’d heard several complaints from constituents who heard about it before she had.

Since then, McCaslin and two other health board members joined the original survey-writing committee to make changes.

They added a cover letter that makes it clear the mail-in survey can be ignored if parents desire. One of the changes was to drop a question asking respondents to state their religion.

Still, McCaslin and board member Lynn Schindler voted against the survey Thursday. McCaslin said she showed it to six people, and three of them said they wouldn’t respond if it arrived in their mailboxes.

Harris didn’t vote because he was in Olympia Thursday. Supporting the survey were Commissioner John Roskelley, Spokane City Council members Phyllis Holmes and Roberta Greene, Airway Heights Mayor Don Harmon, and non-elected members Carol Rudy and Margaret Jones.

Health district staff expect to mail a sample run of the survey within two weeks. People who respond are entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate.

, DataTimes