Dear Mr./Ms./Dr. Administrator’s Name,

I am writing to you to share my concerns about consent education in our children’s schools. I have [number of] children in [name of school system] schools: [names and grades of children, if you wish to share them]. As a loving parent who entrusts this school system with the monumentally important task of educating our children, I need to speak up about one area where their health and wellness is being severely neglected— education around consent.

Peer-on-peer sexual violence is an immense and growing problem in our schools. There’s been some media attention lately around the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses, but this problem starts much earlier. According to Al-Jazeera, 58% of 7th-12th graders experience sexual harassment, one in 5 girls has been sexually assaulted 18% of teens experience sexual abuse in their dating relationships, and one in 8 high school girls has been raped by a peer.

This violence has devastating effects on our children. The Al-Jazeera report also mentions that one in 20 girls transfers high schools to escape sexual harassment or violence. How are our daughters supposed to learn in an environment when they are consistently fearing for their own safety? And although sexual violence disproportionately affects girls, it also hurts our sons. Boys can be victims as well— at the hands of both other boys and girls.

 

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