Pupil: Teach ‘no means no’
Schoolgirl argues lessons would combat rape culture
AHamilton student is pushing for schools to be compelled to teach about sexual consent. “If consent education was made mandatory, students from a young age can be more informed of rape culture and how it can be dismantled in this country,” Patricia Alcartado says in an open letter.
She is a Year 13 student at Hamilton Girls’ High School, a school which does provide education on sexual consent.
Alcartado told the Herald she and school colleagues “are trying to raise awareness for the issue of rape culture in New Zealand and how to combat it”.
Their campaign comes 10 months after the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault took off internationally — and in New Zealand — in the wake of the allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein.
The campaign coincides with the expansion in secondary schools of the ACC Mates and Dates programme. This programme was started in 2014 following the “Roastbusters” scandal, in which some West Auckland youths bragged on social media about having sex with drunk and underage girls. None was convicted.
And early last year, hundreds of Wellington students protested outside Parliament against rape culture in their schools, after comments were posted online, by male students of Wellington College, joking about taking advantage of drunk or unconscious women.
Alcartado said the event “sparked outrage among many, and calls to make consent education mandatory was at the heart of the protest”.
The Rape Prevention Education Whakatu Mauri Trust supports the call for sexual consent education to be made mandatory.
Executive director Debbi Tohill estimated that only a third of Auckland secondary schools provided such education.
“We know that one in five girls and one in 10 boys will have had an unwanted sexual experience by the time they are 16 . . . which demonstrates how important this education is.
“Young people today are surrounded by media images portraying sexual images and we know that many . . . are accessing porn.”
In 2015, the Ministry of Education advised schools to add lessons on consent and coercion into their sexuality education programmes for the first time.
Sex education is a compulsory part of the health curriculum, but schools can choose how they teach it. They must consult with their school community every two years on how they teach it.
Tohill said: “Education on sexual consent and relationships will enable young people to make good choices as they become sexually active. They will understand the law on consent, which can be confusing.”
Education Minister Chris Hipkins said he could not confirm Alcartado’s assertion that fewer than half of schools actively taught about consent. Such data was not reported, he said, although the ministry was currently assessing the quality of sexuality education.
Hipkins said he expected schools to teach about the importance of responsible attitudes and positive relationships, “including the area of consent”.
“However, how schools do this is up to them. A key strength of the curriculum is the flexibility it provides schools to respond to the particular needs and aspirations of their communities.”