Sexual harassment rates may have decreased compared to the late 1980s, but compared to the more recent years, rates still remain high, we which can see in the data collected by the 2024 Higher Education Sexual Misconduct and Awareness Survey by the University of Virginia. From this, we can conclude that sexual harassment is still a relevant problem. Along with that, jokes about sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence have been very common within schools, which normalizes rape culture. Those people who make these type of jokes might not even know the gravity of their jokes, nor how people could be affected by them. 

To fix this problem, we plan to add sexual harassment as a part of the curriculum in Family Life/Health in order to educate students on the seriousness of the problem, how to identify it, how to stay safe, and much more. With this, the future generations would know more about the subject that isn't talked about as much as it should be.

Sign this petition to make learning about sexual harassment a part of the Family Life/Health curriculum in Virginia Middle Schools!