Angry parents almost got into a fistfight with a school official after their autistic son was given a questionnaire asking about trans identity, sex, suicide, and violence.
McCall and Jon Nelson claimed their son Hut, 13, was so badly affected by the quiz he constantly worried his friends disliked him and stopped playing football.
His mother said they had the same conversation with him hundreds of times as he was unable to move on, and it 'drastically changed his life'.
The questionnaire was given to him by administrators at Mount Logan Middle School in Logan, Utah, on February 7 as part of a psychological evaluation.
Jon Nelson blasted officials at a meeting of the Logan City School District Board of Education on May 28 after his son Hut was given a controversial questionnaire
Some of the 122 questions included whether 'I think about sex too much', 'wish I were the opposite sex', or 'threaten to hurt people'
Special needs students have to be reassessed every three years to confirm their eligibility and to tailor their educational support.
The Nelsons signed a consent form for the school district to evaluate for social, behavioral, and academic factors, but claimed the weren't told about the quiz.
Some of the 112 questions included whether 'I think about sex too much', 'wish I were the opposite sex', or 'threaten to hurt people' .
Jon and McCall blasted officials at a meeting of the Logan City School District Board of Education on May 28.
They said a meeting with district superintendent Frank Schofield got so heated McCall had to stop her husband getting in a fistfight with him.
'Frank slammed his fist on the table, called my husband a dumbass, and got out of his chair to come at my husband and I had to get in between the two of them,' she said.
'I've never felt more demeaned, as a mother or as a member of this district, in my life and I am absolutely ashamed of what was done to my son.'
The parents said a meeting with district superintendent Frank Schofield (pictured) got so heated McCall had to stop her husband getting in a fistfight with him
McCall described how her son got in the car after school and told them 'I took a quiz today that asked me if I was transgender'.
'My husband said to him, you can't ask questions like that in school and he said well they did, and I was the only one in my class who had to take the quiz,' she said.
'If you're familiar with autism you know that wasn't the end of the conversation - hundreds of questions, hundreds of hours repeating the same things.
'Do my friends think I'm gay? Why would they ask me if I was going to commit suicide?'
Jon got up to speak after his wife and said Hut told his parents the quiz asked him 'if he wanted to be trans, asked him why he was a pervert and thought about sex too much'.
'It asked if he was going to become a school shooter and kill people then kill himself,' he continued.
The questionnaire does not mention school shootings, but does ask if the child if they 'think about killing myself' 'physically attack people' or 'deliberately try to hurt or kill myself'.
The questionnaire was given to him by administrators at Mount Logan Middle School in Logan, Utah, on February 7 as part of a psychological evaluation
Jon said the last question amounted to 'a self-indictment without [legal] representation'.
'What kind of questions are these to ask a 13-year-old boy on the spectrum?' he said.
'These questions are unnecessary, by simply observing Hut's behavior you would know that he is not violent, he has endured bullying all year and has not shown any violence.'
Jon was also angry about the sexuality questions, such as 'I think about sex too much' and 'I wish I were of the opposite sex'.
'When did it become ok to ask these questions to a 13-year-old without fully informing the parents?' he said.
'Yeah they gave us a consent form for behavior. Is the school district and the board willing to say that transsexual identity is behavior? I don't think so.
'Frank admitted that he did not get full consent, and then he called me a dumbass and told me to shut up and listen to him.'
Jon was also angry about the sexuality questions, such as 'I think about sex too much' and 'I wish I were of the opposite sex'
Jon said he and McCall had numerous discussions with the school and the district, but they still refused to admit the questionnaire was a mistake.
'The district continues to double down, they think they're exculpated from this evaluation because they're not gonna add it to his eligibility,' he said.
'I'm sorry, the damage is done. Our son does not belong to this school district, he belongs to us.
'We spent thousands of hours in treatments, tens of thousands of dollars in private education, in brain mapping, and in therapy - and you guys took it away from me.'
Jon then turned towards the audience seated in front of the board members and angrily pointed at what appeared to be Schofield.
'You took it away from me, and we have not yet begun to fight,' he said.
Jon and McCall claimed giving Hut the questionnaire without telling them about it violated several Utah laws and was therefore administered illegally, which the school district denied.
They want it to be scrapped from future evaluations, or at least for parents to be able to redact questions they believe are harmful to their children.
The questionnaire is a standard 'youth self-report' in the Child Behavior Checklist component of Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment.
Schools use the assessment to help evaluate who can be eligible for special education with certain disabilities and the checklist appears in others around the US since the 1980s.
The questionnaire is a standard 'youth self-report' in the Child Behavior Checklist component of Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment
The checklist, developed by Thomas Achenbach, is filled out by both the child and their parents or caregiver to identify problem behavior.
The ASEBA website explained it was widely used in mental health services, research, schools, medical settings, child and family services, HMOs, public health agencies, child guidance, and training programs.
'Supported by extensive research on service needs and outcomes, diagnosis, prevalence of problems, medical conditions, treatment efficacy, genetic and environmental effects, and epidemiology,' it stated.
'ASEBA instruments clearly document clients' functioning in terms of both quantitative scores and individualized descriptions in respondents' own words.
'Descriptions include what concerns respondents most about the clients, the best things about clients, and details of competencies and problems that are not captured by quantitative scores alone.'
The school district said it was 'considering other tools that might be used to address the purpose of the survey'.
