PUSD’s Healthy Relationship Committee has been drafting a guide to promote healthy relationships and prevent sexual assault and teen relationship violence since fall of 2015.
The passing of a series of state education bills, specifically the 2016 Sexual Abuse and Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Assembly Bill, urged the district to update its policies to include sexual assault and dating violence education last fall. A group of parents approached the district after seeing “The Hunting Ground,” a documentary about rape and sexual assault on college campuses that was screened by PADC on Oct. 29 of last year. The Healthy Relationship Committee then formed to look over the new education bills, said Wellness Center director Ting Hsu Engelman.
The Yes Means Yes law (SB967), one of the education bills approved in 2014, encourages districts to within Ed Code “include instruction in sexual harassment and violence.”
Hsu Engelman said that the intent of the guide is to create more opportunities to develop a healthier environment for students and to prevent sexual assault and abuse.
“[Our policy is] providing education for our students at every level, beginning at elementary, about what is a healthy relationship,” said Director of Curriculum and Instruction Cheryl Wozniak. “It is putting in place expectations that there will be training for all staff.”
The committee’s last meeting is on May 24, where they hope to complete a draft of the guide. An official draft will be reviewed by lawyers and the PUSD Board of Education, and if approved will be implemented in a couple years.
