A flood of freshmen and seniors rush through the doors of the Alan Harvey Theater. The students buzz with conversations and post-lunch energy as they slowly fill up the seats of the theater. As the lights fall, senior Eliza Lucas steps onto stage saying the familiar request for all cell-phones to be silenced, the audience suddenly turns silently attentive. They know that they are about to watch an assembly unlike any other the school offers.

The eleventh annual Consent Assembly was shown to freshmen and seniors on Oct. 20. In the assembly, PHS students performed theatrical accounts of true stories about sexual consent from within the PHS community.

The first performance of the Consent Assembly in Piedmont was in 2005. As for sexual consent education in the rest of the U.S., new legislation approved by Governor Jerry Brown will make California the first state to require education on consent in 2016, according to a letter about the assembly sent home to parents of PHS students.

The school district hopes to teach students about consent as an issue for all genders, the definition of consent, the effects of alcohol on decision-making and the importance of an open, respectful and watchful community, according to the letter.

“These stories are about real Piedmont students and that struck me as just surprising,” freshman Max Roitblat said. “When you hear the topic of rape come up in the media, you never realize how close it can really be to you.”

Three of the stories selected this year were from female students, and each one happened when the student was 14 years old. Senior Yael Gordon, who was one of the performers, said that if these stories are happening at such a young age, it is important that freshmen listen to the assembly in order to spread awareness.

Another performer, senior Saam Niami Jalinous, said that some audience members were talking or laughing, but that they were silenced by people around them.

“It was mostly by seniors who I guess had already seen the show and knew what was coming and how important it was,” Jalinous said. “It’s just really cool to see that it affected so many people and that they understood that it’s not a time to make jokes and it’s not anything to make light of.”

Each year, PHS drama teacher Kim Taylor directs the assembly.

“I think that everyone who watches it, and especially people who perform it, get the sense that Kim cares and really works hard to make the assembly relatable and real,” performer junior Char Nakashima-Conway said.

Lucas said that this is an uncomfortable topic to listen to and watch, but that she hopes people can take it seriously and recognize the issue.

“What we’re trying to promote is awareness of what can happen and how we can stop that because honestly we just want kids to have the best experience possible,” Gordon said.