I am a Bay Area mom raising both a son and a daughter, and this issue is deeply personal to me.

Over the course of my life, I have experienced sexual abuse, harassment, coercion, unwanted advances, and boundary violations beginning in early childhood. Those experiences have made me acutely aware of how normalized sexual violence towards women has become in our society and how often we focus on teaching girls how to avoid sexual violence rather than making sure all young people are explicitly taught consent, bodily autonomy, healthy boundaries, and how to intervene when they see boundary violations to others.

I do not want the next generation to learn these lessons only after assaults are reported.

California already requires comprehensive sexual-health education in middle and high school that includes healthy relationships and communication, but explicit instruction in the state’s affirmative-consent standard is not guaranteed to every student. Age-appropriate consent and bodily-autonomy education is also not universally required beginning in elementary school.

We are asking the California Legislature to change that.

California public schools should provide age-appropriate instruction in:

• Bodily autonomy and personal boundaries
• Asking permission and respecting “no”
• Enthusiastic consent
• The FRIES framework: Freely given, Reversible, Informed, Enthusiastic, and Specific
• Coercion, manipulation, and power dynamics
• Intoxication and capacity to consent
• Recognizing discomfort and withdrawal of consent
• Healthy responses to rejection
• Digital consent for private messages, photos and videos
• Bystander intervention
• Speaking up when someone else’s boundaries are being violated

Consent education should begin before young people become sexually active. Younger students can learn simple lessons about bodily autonomy, permission, and respecting boundaries. As students mature, those lessons should deepen into affirmative consent, coercion, intoxication, healthy relationships, and intervention.

Prevention cannot simply mean telling girls not to drink too much, not to dress a certain way, not to walk alone, or not to put themselves in “dangerous situations.”

We must also teach boys and young men to respect women, understand consent, recognize and honor boundaries, handle rejection, and speak up when they witness a violation.

No one is entitled to another person’s body.
Consent is required.
Boundaries must be respected.
Silence is enablement.

We are calling on the California Legislature to make explicit, developmentally appropriate consent and bodily-autonomy education mandatory in every California public school.

Please sign this petition and help us build the coalition needed to turn this into legislation.