For some teachers, Kavanaugh scandal becomes civics lesson

LOS ANGELES—After news broke over the weekend that a woman had accused Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, AP Government teacher Brandon Cabezas didn’t have to ask himself whether he should talk to his students about it. His students brought it up.

“This was definitely a robust discussion,” Cabezas said. “We didn’t talk about anything else for the first half-hour of class.”

Most of Cabezas’ 12thgraders at the Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts in downtown Los Angeles are 17 years old. They’re the same age Kavanaugh was when, Christine Blasey Ford said, he pinned her down, groped her and covered her mouth to stop her from screaming. Kavanaugh has denied her allegations.

They’re also old enough to have followed the 2016 election, been exposed to then-candidate Donald Trump’s infamous “Access Hollywood” video and read a year’s worth of #MeToo headlines. In other words, they’re familiar with the debate over how sexual misconduct allegations should be treated.

What’s not clear is how this issue should be treated in the classroom.

For some social studies and civics teachers, President Donald Trump’s nomination of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was an ideal, real-world lesson in the separation of powers and the checks and balances built into American government. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings were ready-made course material.

But Ford’s accusation that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers has changed the conversation unexpectedly.

Jasmine Uribe, director of community initiatives for Break the Cycle, an advocacy organization that helps young people build healthy relationships, said this period of political turmoil could be a good teaching moment.

The scenario described by Ford, a California professor — regardless of any questions it may raise — is one that high school students may already have confronted or may encounter in the future, she said. It provides an opportunity for health teachers to get a discussion going about drinking and boundaries, sexual harassment and assault.

In some respects, California students may be better equipped to have these conversations than most.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation in 2015 that made California the first state in the nation to mandate that schools teach sexual consent. Since 2016, when the law took effect, school districts that require their graduates to take a health class have had to teach students about affirmative consent, defined by the state as conscious and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity.