Parents: Students ridiculed during anti-bullying workshop in Pa.

    Parents say students at a Pennsylvania school were asked personal questions that opened them up to ridicule during what was supposed to be an anti-bullying workshop.

    School officials defended the superintendent after eighth-grade students at West Allegheny Middle School in Imperial were asked last week to step into a circle and answer questions including whether they were gay, what their religion was and about their family’s financial status.

    School board president Debbie Mirich says the board supports Superintendent Jerri Lynn Lippert, district administrators and teachers.

    Lippert says the “Kindness Workshop” was created after bullying reports with good intentions but had unintended consequences.

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    Parents said at meetings this week that students were also asked about the education levels of family members, drug and alcohol usage and household marital status.

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