{"id":226160,"date":"2023-09-18T19:03:17","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T19:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecircleeducation.org\/?p=226160"},"modified":"2023-10-12T04:43:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T04:43:21","slug":"giss-starts-school-year-with-consent-awareness-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecircleeducation.org\/2023\/09\/18\/giss-starts-school-year-with-consent-awareness-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Gulf Islands Secondary School starts school year with Consent Awareness Week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gulf Islands Secondary School has partnered with The Circle Education, IWAV and Salt Spring Community Services for its first-ever Consent Awareness Week. Consent is vital to many aspects of life, and is essential for young people to form healthy, respectful relationships.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to calls from students, GISS dedicated its first Health and Wellness Day of the new school year to consent. \u201cWe are supporting the \u2018High School Too\u2019 Movement, which advocates for policy, protocol, and education change so that all high school students understand that consent comes first,\u201d explains GISS vice-principal Stacy Mitchell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research shows that 15% of girls and 9% of boys between the ages of 14 to 21 have had a sexual act forced upon them by a peer (Taylor et al., 2019). Moreover, in a school climate survey, many 2SLGBTQIA+ students (58%) identified being sexually harassed in the past year and 13% reported that this harassment occurred often or frequently (Kosciw et al., 2020). (Edited from www.couragetoact.ca)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Language of consent<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Consent, which means to give permission for something to happen or be done, is an important topic to cover in schools. \u201cWhen we talk about consent, people often think about sexual consent first, but that is just a small part of it\u201d, says Kate Nash from The Circle Education, who will facilitate workshops at GISS during Consent Awareness Week. \u201cI believe consent is something we can teach from the very start\u201d, she continues. \u201cBy bringing the language of consent into all areas of our lives, we\u2019ll weave a culture of consent into the very fabric of our community. We talk a lot about consent, respect and boundaries in our in- and after-school programs. It is all part of creating healthy relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nash will facilitate workshops about consent at GISS in all the Grade 8-12 cohorts. \u201cWe will be doing games and activities to ease into the subject\u201d, Nash says. \u201cAll with the purpose of explaining what consent means for yourself and others, and how you can practice it in your daily life.\u201d After the workshops, Jessica Terezakis, who\u2019s with IWAV\u2019s sexual assault response program, and counsellor Luis Araujo from Salt Spring Island Community Services, will go into the classes to dive deeper into the subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honest conversations<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

IWAV (Islanders Working Against Violence) is a local non-profit society providing services throughout the Southern Gulf Islands to women and their children affected by poverty, violence and abuse.  Over the past three years, IWAV has seen an increase in transition house residents and clients of their counselling and sexual assault programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a clear indicator that problems around consent are on the rise,\u201d says IWAV\u2019s Program manager, Heather Picotte, who strongly supports this new initiative at GISS. \u201cHaving a whole Health & Wellness Day that\u2019s solely focused on consent is a sign that we, as a community, are better able to have honest conversations about consent. Clear boundaries, bodily autonomy, and dignity stem from a healthy understanding of consent \u2013 how to give and receive permission for any number of social things, or not, in a graceful and compassionate way that preserves relationships instead of destroying them. We believe discussions about the body and consent should start in early childhood and continue throughout the lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broader discussion<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Luis Araujo, who also does mentorship work in the school district, sees an urgent need for a broader discussion about the topic. \u201cI really appreciate that the school is starting the year focusing on wellness, as well as consent,\u201d says Araujo. \u201cConsent is a major area of counselling and mentorship support, as we had several GISS students recently charged with offences directly related to consent.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is hard for Araujo, who has been working as a counsellor on Salt Spring Island for ten years, to pinpoint the reason for the rising problems surrounding consent. \u201cIt could be a myriad of things\u201d, he says. \u201cWhat I have seen in the schools, is that through social media, young students, mostly boys but also girls, gain contact with influencers with questionable or even misogynistic ideas. Some students have beliefs that people of my generation think as totally unacceptable. In a way, we are going backward.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lack of clarity<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

There is also a lack of clarity around consent, he noticed. \u201cSome students don\u2019t know what consent is, others might confuse silence for consent. Sometimes fear stops someone from saying \u2018no\u2019. Or someone has had too much alcohol or drugs to say no. You can also have a change of mind when something doesn\u2019t feel good. Those are important topics when we talk about consent.\u201d  Picotte agrees: \u201cWe realize that negotiating consent is incredibly difficult at the moment. We\u2019ve all been there \u2013 the pressured moment when you\u2019re not sure what to say or which decision to make, and that decision could impact the rest of your life. Talking about consent openly and regularly is the only way to make that easier.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anxiety and mental health problems are contributing as well. \u201cWe have seen a general increase in mental health issues in recent years and a lack of proper support for people experiencing those crises,\u201d says Picotte. \u201cAnxiety can make you feel displaced and not be able to function well,\u201d adds Araujo. \u201cIt can lead to poor decisions and even violence. We have to tackle anxiety before anything else.\u201d It is a vast area, he realizes. \u201cI am not sure how we are going to do this in a week, but it is a start. This work needs to be done and it needs to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It’s Not Just\u2019<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Teaching consent in schools is crucial because it can help prevent sexual violence, abuse, and harassment. Dove-tailing with this week, as a funded partner with the Federal government, The Circle Education will be unfolding the \u201cIt\u2019s Not Just\u201d campaign aimed at Canadian youth. \u201cIt\u2019s Not Just\u201d was created to increase awareness around gender-based violence and ultimately shift behaviours and actions to create a safer Canada for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018It\u2019s Not Just\u2019 campaign shows that gender based-violence is \u2018not just physical\u2019. Gender-based violence, often towards an intimate partner, can also be emotional violence (words or actions to control or frighten someone, or to lower their self-respect and self-esteem), financial violence (when a person uses money assets or property to control or to exploit someone) or sexual violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Need help?<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

IWAV has two programs with a youth component: the PEACE program is for youth ages 3-18, all genders, who have been impacted by family violence. The Sexual Assault Response program offers crisis response and ongoing counselling for youth ages 13+, all genders, who have been sexually assaulted, whether recently or in the past. See iwav.org<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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