Some Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools parents and teachers say they're concerned about a mandatory survey being given in class that asks students in grades 5-12 to list their sexual orientation and gender identity.

It's part of a school climate survey being administered by the district's Title IX department. That's a reference to a law forbidding federally-funded schools from discriminating by sex.

A screen shot of the introduction to the survey, provided to WFAE by an educator, says schools have through Tuesday to administer the survey. It says the Title IX office is "requiring all students in grades 5-12 to participate in a mandatory survey to gain insight on students' perspective of school climate, culture, safety" and other related issues.

Two parents told WFAE they understand the value of asking about bullying and safety, but said they have concerns about privacy, age-appropriateness and the lack of any communication with families. Others, including teachers, made similar comments on a private Facebook page for CMS advocacy.

"My concern is about the fact that they’re asking very personal and private information from children who may or may not understand the terminologies that they’re using yet," said Shamaiye Haynes, the mother of fourth- and 11th-graders in CMS.

Neither parents nor the teachers administering the survey were told what to expect, according to interviews and online comments. One middle school teacher says he realized something was different about a school climate survey when a student asked him what “asexual” means.

It's one of seven options on a multiple-choice question asking students to describe their sexual orientation, along with straight/heterosexual, gay or lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, questioning my sexual orientation or “other.”

Students are also asked to indicate gender identity. The options there are male, female, non-binary and gender fluid. There’s another question about whether students identify as transgender.

Jason Carey says he learned about the questions from his daughter, an eighth-grader at Waddell Language Academy. He asked her to call the survey up on PowerSchool, the online tool used to give families access to CMS information.

"I think the survey is actually a good survey," Carey said Friday. "It asks about bullying school experience, do you have somebody you can report things to."

But he says he's concerned that students may not fully understand the questions, "and it’s not, as far as I can tell, an anonymous survey because they log in through their ID."

"Parents were not given a heads-up about this survey so we couldn’t discuss it with our kids, and the teachers said, 'You have to take this survey. Please finish it.' There was no way to opt out," he said.

Haynes agreed, and added that "I think parents should be able to advise their children whether or not they want them to complete the survey at all."

On the private Facebook page, someone who identified himself as a gay teacher said the questions are an inappropriate invasion of students' privacy. "There continues to be masked and blatant discrimination against gay and transgender teachers and students within CMS and of course in our society as a whole," the comment says.

Another commenter says the questions sparked inappropriate jokes among middle school students.

The CMS public information department has yet to respond to WFAE's requests for a copy of the full survey and an explanation. CMS Board Chair Elyse Dashew, a CMS parent, said Thursday she hadn't heard about it but would try to find out more.