Three Reasons Sexual Assault Centres Support Sex Ed

This Sep­tem­ber, Ontario will revert to an out­dat­ed 1998 sex-ed cur­ricu­lum. Ontario Coali­tion of Rape Cri­sis Cen­tres (OCR­CC) believes that this shift will adverse­ly impact Ontario’s young people.

Pro­vid­ing com­pre­hen­sive sex-ed is first and fore­most ​“about mak­ing sure that young peo­ple receive the infor­ma­tion they need and are enti­tled to in order to live safe, healthy and ful­fill­ing lives”. With the repeal­ing of the 2015 sex-ed cur­ricu­lum, Ontario youth will miss out on the fol­low­ing vital content:

I. Edu­ca­tion which fos­ters the pre­ven­tion of sex­u­al violence

Ontario’s 2015 Health and Phys­i­cal Edu­ca­tion Cur­ricu­lum includes infor­ma­tion about equi­table and safe rela­tion­ships, con­sent, sex­u­al vio­lence and online vio­lence that young peo­ple need today. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant because we know that young pop­u­la­tions are at a high sta­tis­ti­cal risk of expe­ri­enc­ing sex­u­al vio­lence. For example:

• In a Cana­di­an crim­i­nal jus­tice report, males made up 29% of child vic­tims and 12% of youth vic­tim­s¹. For males, being under 12 years old height­ens their vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty to being tar­get­ed for sex­u­al offences²
• Young women between the ages of 15 and 25 years in Cana­da are the age group most like­ly to expe­ri­ence sex­u­al or rela­tion­ship violence³
• Young women from exclud­ed groups are more vul­ner­a­ble to being tar­get­ed for sex­u­al harass­ment and sex­u­al assault⁴. This includes women of colour, dis­abled women, inter­sex, queer, trans, and Two Spir­it women.

Edu­ca­tion on sex­u­al vio­lence goes a long way towards pre­ven­tion. Edu­ca­tion offers inno­v­a­tive ways to chal­lenge sex­u­al assault myths and vic­tim-blam­ing; and to reach out to diverse and young pop­u­la­tions to talk about things that they may not be hav­ing con­ver­sa­tions about at home. Edu­ca­tion on sex­u­al vio­lence con­tributes to the pre­ven­tion of sex­u­al assault by:

• sup­port­ing young peo­ple to under­stand their rights. By being pre­pared to offer infor­ma­tion about sex­u­al vio­lence, edu­ca­tors help equip young peo­ple with a clear under­stand­ing of their bod­ies, their rights and where to go should they ever need support.
• iden­ti­fy­ing the con­tin­u­um of sex­u­al vio­lence (from harass­ment to rape)
• sup­port­ing young peo­ple to chal­lenge sex­u­al assault myths
• know­ing the laws con­cern­ing sex­u­al assault and consent

Edu­ca­tion can also help oth­ers learn how to respond to sur­vivors who dis­close their expe­ri­ences, and direct them to help­ful sup­ports in the com­mu­ni­ty. Research indi­cates that many sur­vivors wish to talk about their expe­ri­ences, but fear the reac­tions of oth­ers. When sur­vivors receive a pos­i­tive response from their dis­clo­sures, the ben­e­fits of talk­ing about one’s expe­ri­ence of sex­u­al vio­lence are in fact ​“asso­ci­at­ed with improved psy­cho­log­i­cal health, increased com­fort, sup­port, and val­i­da­tion, and desired out­comes such as penal­iz­ing the per­pe­tra­tor and pro­tect­ing oth­ers”⁵. Oth­er research shows that young sur­vivors are most like­ly to dis­close to a peer, fam­i­ly mem­ber or some­one with whom they have a pri­or trust­ing rela­tion­ship (that is, not nec­es­sar­i­ly to a social work­er or oth­er pro­fes­sion­al)⁶.

For these rea­sons alone, it’s impor­tant to talk with young peo­ple about sex­u­al vio­lence in the very spaces in which they spend much of their time – includ­ing at school.

II. Edu­ca­tion which includes les­bian, gay, bisex­u­al, trans, queer, inter­sex, ques­tion­ing and Two Spir­it (LGBTQI2S)⁷ folks in its approach to health

Young peo­ple whose fam­i­lies iden­ti­fy as LGBTQI2S – and youth who are LGBTQI2S – can see them­selves reflect­ed in the updat­ed (2015) Ontario Health & Phys­i­cal Edu­ca­tion Cur­ricu­lum con­tent. Oth­er youth can see LGBTQI2S indi­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies reflect­ed in the cur­ricu­lum, as well.

The inclu­sion of LGBTQI2S peo­ple and com­mu­ni­ties in the cur­ricu­lum reflects the lived real­i­ties of diverse sex­u­al­i­ty, gen­der iden­ti­ty, gen­der expres­sion and diverse bod­ies in Ontario. When these real­i­ties are not inten­tion­al­ly includ­ed, many in our com­mu­ni­ty become social­ly exclud­ed. This can mean inter­nal and exter­nal stigma­ti­za­tion, dis­crim­i­na­tion, vic­tim­iza­tion by oth­ers, lack of soci­etal under­stand­ing, secre­cy or con­ceal­ment with­in social envi­ron­ments⁸. We also know that, like many oth­ers from exclud­ed or mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties, LGBTQI2S peo­ple expe­ri­ence sex­u­al vio­lence dif­fer­ent­ly than oth­ers: for exam­ple, young women from mar­gin­al­ized groups are more vul­ner­a­ble to being tar­get­ed for sex­u­al vio­lence⁹; and accord­ing to TransPulse, half of all trans per­sons expe­ri­ence sex­u­al violence.

For these rea­sons, it is vital­ly impor­tant that the Ontario Health & Phys­i­cal Edu­ca­tion Cur­ricu­lum main­tains con­tent on diverse ways of being, includ­ing sex­u­al iden­ti­ty, gen­der iden­ti­ty and gen­der expression.

III. Edu­ca­tion which fos­ters youth men­tal health by address­ing the above two subjects.

Research shows that peo­ple can expe­ri­ence sig­nif­i­cant dis­tress and con­cerns for their safe­ty as a result of cyber-sex­u­al harass­ment, sex­u­al harass­ment in the work­place and sex­u­al assault, stalk­ing, and traf­fick­ing for sex­u­al exploita­tion¹⁰. Ontario’s It’s Nev­er Okay: An Action Plan to Stop Sex­u­al Vio­lence and Harass­ment also rec­og­nizes this impor­tant cor­re­la­tion, not­ing that ​“health con­se­quences of sex­u­al assault extend to men­tal health con­se­quences [which] can be severe and long-term, includ­ing anx­i­ety and pan­ic attacks, eat­ing dis­or­ders, sub­stance abuse, depres­sion and oth­er men­tal health prob­lems.

For those from mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties, the expe­ri­ence of sex­u­al vio­lence may fur­ther exas­per­ate exist­ing con­cerns con­nect­ed to social exclu­sion, men­tal health and well­ness.
There is no dis­put­ing that sex­u­al vio­lence has pro­found impacts on the lives of sur­vivors – how­ev­er, those who have been vic­tim­ized also show great resilience, self-aware­ness and strength. More­over, appro­pri­ate sup­ports and a respect­ful recog­ni­tion of sur­vivors’ expe­ri­ences can make a huge dif­fer­ence in their recovery.

Edu­ca­tion can have a sig­nif­i­cant role in this. It can sup­port sur­vivors of vio­lence to name their expe­ri­ences and nor­mal­ize their reac­tions to vio­lence, thus con­tribut­ing to their well­ness. Edu­ca­tion on sex­u­al vio­lence, healthy rela­tion­ships and con­sent can also help sur­vivors real­ize that sup­port­ive resources exist, and con­nect them with coun­selling or health ser­vices in their local communities.

What now?

The updat­ed cur­ricu­lum pro­vid­ed improved infor­ma­tion, skills, and strate­gies need­ed to keep our chil­dren and youth healthy and safe. From affirm­ing gen­der diverse youth to rec­og­niz­ing signs of cyber abuse, it is essen­tial that edu­ca­tion in Ontario reflects the real­i­ties of the 21^st century.

But as of Sep­tem­ber, Ontario stu­dents will receive one of the most out­dat­ed cur­ricu­lums in Cana­da com­pared to oth­er provinces and ter­ri­to­ries — one which no longer includes these impor­tant subjects.

Here’s what you can do now:

• Share the infor­ma­tion here with oth­ers you know
• Con­tact your MPP to let them know that you wish to see the 2015 sex-ed cur­ricu­lum main­tained. Go to: https://​wehavey​our​back​on​tario​.org/​e​a​c​tion/ now!
• Con­tin­ue believ­ing sur­vivors of sex­u­al vio­lence in your com­mu­ni­ties. Help con­nect sur­vivors and those that care about them to sex­u­al vio­lence sup­ports near you.

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The Ontario Coali­tion of Rape Cri­sis Cen­tres (OCR­CC) includes 29 sex­u­al assault cen­tres serv­ing sur­vivor-vic­tims of sex­u­al vio­lence across Ontario. Sex­u­al assault cen­tres deliv­er free and con­fi­den­tial cri­sis, advo­ca­cy and ongo­ing sup­port to sur­vivors of sex­u­al vio­lence through­out all of Ontario. If you or some­one you know has been affect­ed by vio­lence and are seek­ing sup­port, please go to http://​www​.sex​u​alas​sault​sup​port​.ca/​s​u​pport.

1 Juri­s­tat Cana­di­an Cen­tre for Jus­tice Sta­tis­tics. Sex­u­al Offens­es in Cana­da. 2004: 1
2 Mea­sur­ing Vio­lence Against Women: Sta­tis­ti­cal Trends 2006, Sta­tis­tics Cana­da
3 Cana­di­an Women’s Foun­da­tion, 2012, as cit­ed in An Explorato­ry Study Of Women’s Safe­ty At The Uni­ver­si­ty Of Toron­to Mis­sis­sauga: A Gen­der-Based Analy­sis by Paula DeCoito Ph.D. Social Plan­ning Coun­cil of Peel. July 2013, 19.
4 Wolfe and Chio­do, CAMH, 2008, p. 3.
5 Vio­lence against Women Learn­ing Net­work, Cen­tre for Research & Edu­ca­tion on Vio­lence Against Women and Chil­dren, West­ern Uni­ver­si­ty. May 2012. Over­com­ing Bar­ri­ers and Enhanc­ing Sup­port­ive Respons­es: The Research on Sex­u­al Vio­lence Against Women A Resource Doc­u­ment: 25.
6 Ahrens, C.E and Erendi­ra Aldana. The Ties That Bind: Under­stand­ing the Impact of Sex­u­al Assault Dis­clo­sure on Sur­vivors’ Rela­tion­ships with Friends, Fam­i­ly, and Part­ners. In Jour­nal of Trau­ma & Dis­so­ci­a­tion, 13:226 – 243, 2012.
7 The acronym ​‘LGBTQI2S’ is used here to ref­er­ence all peo­ple with diverse gen­der iden­ti­ties and expe­ri­ences of attrac­tion (sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion), includ­ing those who iden­ti­fy as les­bian, gay, bisex­u­al, trans, Two Spir­it, inter­sex, queer or ques­tion­ing.
8 Everett, B. (2015). Sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion iden­ti­ty change and depres­sive symp­toms: a lon­gi­tu­di­nal analy­sis. Jour­nal of Health and Social Behav­ior, 56(1), 37 – 58. doi:10.1177/0022146514568349
9 Wolfe and Chio­do, CAMH, 2008, p. 3.
10 Vio­lence against Women Learn­ing Net­work, Cen­tre for Research & Edu­ca­tion on Vio­lence Against Women and Chil­dren, West­ern Uni­ver­si­ty. May 2012. Over­com­ing Bar­ri­ers and Enhanc­ing Sup­port­ive Respons­es: The Research on Sex­u­al Vio­lence Against Women A Resource Doc­u­ment: 18.