Issue Position: Teaching Comprehensive Consent in Sex Education

Issue Position

In the wake of last summer's Tribune expose regarding sexual abuse in the Chicago Public Schools, local elected officials heard a lot about background checks and discipline, but not enough about the prevention of sexual assault and abuse. After extensive research, discussions with advocacy organizations and conversations with survivors, Representative Williams and her team realized one critical element of prevention efforts is a comprehensive and consistent approach to teaching the meaning of consent to students.

Experts consider the teaching of consent in schools to be an integral component of sexual abuse prevention -- and that current law did not give educators the guidance they needed to teach this important concept in a clear and uniform fashion. In response, Representative Williams introduced HB 3550 to add a comprehensive definition of consent to the statute governing sex education in Illinois. This legislation makes Illinois one of a dozen or so states to teach comprehensive consent in the classroom. You can read more about this bill in the Sun Times, Chicago Tribune, and The Southerner.

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