GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Sex education curriculum could look much different for K-12 students in Michigan if a bill before the state Legislature becomes law.
If approved, House Bill 5734 would require schools to provide lessons about affirmative consent, or a "yes means yes" curriculum, during sex education.
Key parts of the "yes means yes" curriculum are spelled out in the bill. Schools would have to provide lessons on "respectful and healthy dating relationships" and what affirmative consent is.
"Affirmative consent is simply giving students and youth the tools to know when somebody's saying yes or how to understand when somebody's saying no," Tara Aday, director of prevention and education at Safe Haven Ministries, explained.
Safe Haven, a Grand Rapids-based domestic violence outreach program, works with several area schools to teach teens about safe dating to how to step in when they see something wrong happening. Aday thinks the proposed additions in the bill will help that mission.
"No means no is a really bad way to look at consent," Aday said, "because the reality is that many people may not want to do something, but they aren't able — their bodies aren't able — to get the words to say no."
She said current state law on sex ed is "behind the times."
The proposed legislation clarifies that consent does not mean lack of resistance, that silence isn't consent and that each person involved must voluntarily say yes. It also mandates teaching about the responsibility of bystanders.