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" California will become the first state to require all high schools statewide to teach students about sexual consent, Governor Jerry Brown&amp;#039;s office announced on Thursday. The law requires that affirmative consent and sexual violence prevention must be taught in any high school that has made health class a graduation requirement, iSchoolGuide\u00A0reports. The measure was supported nearly unanimously across party lines.\u00A0 Five of California&amp;#039;s largest districts, including Los Angeles Unified, currently list health class as a graduation requirement. The new law will take effect on January 1.\u00A0 Here&amp;#039;s what this means for California students:\u00A0if your gym teacher is going to awkwardly show you how to unroll a condom onto a banana and lecture you about sexually transmitted diseases, they&amp;#039;re also going to explain why it&amp;#039;s so crucial to receive an affirmative\u00A0yes from your partner before hooking up.\u00A0 &amp;quot;I strongly think consent should be taught in school, because a lot of young high school boys are unaware that sex without a female&amp;#039;s permission\u00A0isn&amp;#039;t okay,&amp;quot; Eliz Aquino, a 2016 grad of Jesse Bethel High School in Vallejo,\u00A0whose school didn&amp;#039;t offer sex ed,\u00A0told Seventeen.com. &amp;quot;A lot of boys at my school would pressure their girlfriends into having sex, because they believe that just because you&amp;#039;re in a relationship, you are entitled to their body.\u00A0I really wish sexual consent was taught when I was a high school student.&amp;quot;\u00A0Eliz\u00A0says she&amp;#039;s happy the government is drawing attention to the issue of consent.\u00A0 &amp;quot;I think it&amp;#039;s very important for students to learn about consent in school because it will prepare you for life,&amp;quot; Taylor Silverstein, an incoming senior at Brentwood School in Los Angeles, who took\u00A0sex ed and human development classes in seventh through ninth grades and was taught about consent,\u00A0told Seventeen.com. &amp;quot;This kind of knowledge is extremely powerful and important.&amp;quot; Last year, California became the first state to require that colleges and universities adopt an affirmative consent policy\u00A0known as &amp;quot;yes means yes.&amp;quot; The policy states that sexual activity will only be considered consensual if both people involved clearly express that they&amp;#039;re willing to participate.\u00A0 Of course, California has been in the news lately for a very different conversation around consent: the sexual assault case at Stanford that led to Brock Turner&amp;#039;s six-month sentence in jail,\u00A0which has since been shortened to just four months.\u00A0 The more students are\u00A0educated about the importance of consent, the less we&amp;#039;ll hopefully hear about sexual assault cases like the one at Stanford.\u00A0 "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/school/news/a41178/california-becomes-the-first-state-to-require-teaching-consent-in-high-school/>