SCHOOL HEALTH EXAM ???
     Numerous parents in East Stroudsberg, Pennsylvania are irate
over their public school system having done gynecological exams on
their 6th-grade daughters at school without parental permission or
even telling parents such exams were being done as part of a state
policy of requiring all 6th grade students to have physicals.
     According to accounts on other echoes, the girls were not
allowed to call their parents before the exam...nor to refuse it.
Such accounts also said the girls were physically blocked from
leaving the group waiting to be examined.  They also say that a
school-provided advance explanation to parents never mentioned that
the physical would include a gynecological exam, and that the
explanation said that parents' permission was "assumed" if they did
not object in writing in advance.  (Some posts quote articles from
a Pocono, PA newspaper.)
     Is anyone familiar with the incident?
     Does anyone have any opinion on:
          1) Was "informed consent" obtained?
               A kid can't go on a field trip to the museum without
               the school getting a signed permission slip, signed
               by the parent in advance.
          2) In schools doing at-school physicals, are students
               normally prohibited from calling their parents?
          3) Should the students have been simply given a form for
               their doctors to complete, and told they would be
               suspended if they didn't return it...like with
               vaccinations?
          4) Are gynecological exams a normal part of at-school
               physicals?
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