Kaine has bill to help schools teach about safe relationships

A talk with  U.Va. students back in December started Sen. Tim Kaine thinking after he heard them say they’d never really learned about dating violence and consent in relations between the sexes before going away to school.

But members of U.Va’s One Less organization, a group that speaks up for survivors of rape and sexual assault, thought sessions in high school about those subjects would be a big help in preventing sexual assaults on campus.

So Kaine teamed up with Sen. Claire McCaskill, D., Mo., to introduce legislation requiring health education classes in public high schools include information on the behavior and communications that ensure safe relationships.

“With the alarming statistics on the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses and in communities across the country, secondary schools should play a role in promoting safe relationship behavior and teaching students about sexual assault and dating violence,” he said.

The Teach Safe Relationships Act that Kaine and McCaskill introduced would amend federal education law to expand comprehensive health education to include “safe relationship behavior” education. (Schools aren’t required to offer health education, however.)The bill would also launch a grant program help secondary schools teach about safe relationships.

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