Should We Teach About Consent In K-12? Brett Kavanaugh's Home State Says Yes
When the Access Hollywood tape of Donald Trump, along with sexual assault stories involving Brock Turner and Bill Cosby, hit the news back in 2016, a middle school student in Maryland named Maeve Sanford-Kelly was listening.
"I was frankly really distraught," she recalls. "I felt powerless. I assumed that this was what happened, that sexual harassment and sexual assault was a thing in our society and it wasn't going to change because it was part of the power structure."
Her mother had an idea that might help. Ariana Kelly, a Democrat, is a delegate in the Maryland state legislature, and she introduced a bill that would require the state to include consent in sex ed classes. Maeve and her friends, as well as student groups across the state, campaigned and testified for the bill.
It defines consent as "the unambiguous and voluntary agreement between all participants in each physical act within the course of interpersonal relationships."
Before they turn 18, about 8 percent of girls and 0.7 percent of boys experience rape or attempted rape, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the majority of these reported cases, the CDC says, the perpetrator is a peer: either an acquaintance or a current or former intimate partner.
And yet few schools across the country are required to teach about consent or healthy relationships in sex ed classes.
Currently, according to a report in May by the Center for American Progress, under a dozen states mention the terms "healthy relationships," "sexual assault" or "consent" in their sex education programs.
But with the #MeToo movement, that might be changing. Since the beginning of 2018, five states besides Maryland have introduced bills to require the teaching of consent in sex ed.
Amy Tiemann is a neuroscientist and educator and co-author of a new book on child safety, Doing Right By Our Kids. She works with KidPower, a child safety education group. She says the message of respect for others and your own body can be made simple and empowering even for young children.
"They can be 3 years old, they can be 15 years old, they can be in college, and we don't know who might be a potential perpetrator or who might be a potential victim Continue reading: Should We Teach About Consent In K-12? Brett Kavanaugh's Home State Says Yes : NPR
#MeTooK12 Campaign | Stop Sexual Assault in Schools - https://wp.me/P6aIHy-Q8
