By Precious Fondren

MPR News/90.1 FM

When Jessica Melnik staged a sit-in at Hopkins High School in early October to show her solidarity with sexual assault victims, she wanted to make it clear that men who think it’s OK to rape women don’t become that way the moment they step onto college campus grounds.

“I think it’s a culture that starts from kindergarten and goes all the way up until college,” Melnik said.

To Melnik, the protest was just one way to raise awareness about the lack of resources for high school students surrounding sexual assault and prevention.

While recent months have brought to light how colleges and universities are struggling to deal with sexual assault on their campuses, high schools and even middle schools are also facing challenges. Advocates in Minnesota say even in the #MeToo era, high schools and middle schools aren’t adequately teaching students the fundamentals of sexual consent.

“School districts are pressed for time, and unfortunately health classes traditionally have been one of those classes that get chipped away,” said Andrew Beeman, a sexuality educator for the Annex Teen Clinic in Robbinsdale. “Teaching kids how to interact with other people and how to respect everyone’s own ability to choose who and who doesn’t touch their own body is important.”

Beeman is a part of ConsentEd Minnesota. The organization advocates for creating a standard for consent education to be included in middle and high school curriculum.

The group worked alongside Rep. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, earlier this year to lobby for a bill that would mandate consent education in K-12 health classrooms. The bill would require all high schools to teach “affirmative” consent in the classroom.

The proposal failed to make it into a larger budget and policy bill that was sent to the governor, Maye Quade said.

“One of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle tried to paint it as though we were trying to teach sex to children,” Quade said.

Quade, who gave up her legislative seat when she ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor, isn’t sure if the bill will be revived next session in the House, which is now under DFL control. But she’s hopeful.

Advocates say they’re not giving up their push to have schools teach the principles of consent — the earlier, the better. And not just on the rare occasion. For instance, advocates say, even kindergarteners can be taught to respect boundaries, and that it’s not OK to touch their classmates without asking.