The Minnesota House said “no” Thursday night to encouraging school districts to give students “age-appropriate instruction on consent” as part of classroom teaching on preventing sexual assault. Representative Erin Maye Quade proposed students be told it is the responsibility of each person involved in sexual activity to ensure that the other person consents, and that “lack of… resistance does not mean consent.” Eagan Democrat Laurie Halverson agrees. “People were told that they consented with their silence. We need to make sure our children know how to protect themselves and use their voices,” Halverson says. But Andover Republican Peggy Scott objects: “We’re telling children how to say ‘no,’ and then in this one we’re telling, oh, but here’s what you do do to say ‘yes’.”
Ramsey Republican Abigail Whelan echoed, “I don’t think this is a conversation we should be having in our K through 12 schools: when or when not to consent to sexual activities. This is a conversation parents need to be having with their children.” But New Brighton Democrat Mary Kunesh-Podein supported the measure saying, “This just doesn’t mean teaching kids about sex. This is teaching kids about being responsible with their body and their minds and their mouths.”
The bill the House passed does encourage teaching of “age-appropriate strategies” to recognize and report sexual assault, and to deter “unwanted forms of touching and contact.”