Consent Training/Education

Background

• Consent is not specifically defined in Missouri statute. However, Missouri law provides that rape in the first degree is committed if the offender has sexual intercourse with another person who is incapacitated, incapable of consent, or lacks the capacity to consent, or by use of of forcible compulsion.
• “State mandates vary considerably in whether and how they define consent. CA, DE, OR and SC name either consent or affirmative consent as part of their sex education requirements but off limited detail. By contrast, CO, IL, MD, NJ, and DC provide more detailed definitions of consent for schools to teach, IL enacted a particularly strong measure this year that requires age-appropriate consent education and clarifies that consent must be freely given and can be withdrawn, is not implied by consent to a previous activity or with a different person, and cannot be given by a person who is intoxicated or asleep.” (Guttmacher Institute)
• Consent can be defined as: “A freely given agreement to the conduct at issue by a competent person. An expression of lack of consent through words or conduct means there is no consent. Lack of verbal or physical resistance or submission resulting from the use of force, threat of force, or placing another person in fear does not constitute consent. A current or previous dating or social or sexual relationship by itself or the manner of dress of the person involved with the accused in the conduct at issue shall not constitute consent.” (Past ASUM Legislation)

Relevance to the UM System Body

• Lack of consent understanding represents a direct threat to the health and safety of our entire student body. Without statewide legislation, it may be possible that more instances of these issues occur.
• Sexual assault prevention was listed 4th on student priorities in our 2019 Annual Student Issues Survey.
• According to an article done by The Kansas City Star, a quarter of women who have attended classes at Mizzou have experienced sexual assault.
  • “The results provide cause for both hope and continued concern. They reveal that, while students know more about university-sponsored resources for victims of sexual assault and misconduct, they still aren’t using the resources often enough. The results also show that rates of sexual assault and misconduct, measured by self-reports from students, have increased slightly since 2015, and that some groups of students – including women, non-cisgender students, and others – continue to be victimized at disproportionately high rates”, AAU President Mary Sue Coleman, speaking about the 2019 Campus Climate Survey.