Poly Prep ‘diversity’ poll stirs outrage

Brooklyn’s prestigious Poly Prep Country Day School pried into its students’ lives with a “diversity and inclusion” questionnaire that asked them about 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 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.

Students were also asked whether they felt happy about being members of their social class, if they 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 received complaints from Poly Prep parents.

“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 said.

It 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, along 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 spokesperson who noted the survey results were anonymous.

After the outcry, Poly Prep headmaster Audrius Barzdukas said in a May note to parents that the results had been deleted and apologized for any “confusion and discomfort this survey caused.”