Story and Photo by Elaina James
Elaina James
This classroom is hosting a Safe Touch lesson, designed by the Orange County Rape Crisis Center.
Safe Touch is designed to prevent childhood sexual assault by allowing children to build an understanding of healthy boundaries.
Alex Mavrogenis, the Youth Education Program Director for the OCRCC, says that the program reaches more than 14,000 children each year.
Alex Mavrogenis
“Safe Touch is a lot more about first of all developing an understanding of touch. So how do you know if a touch is unsafe? How do you know if a touch is safe? How do you know if something feels confusing?”
Elaina James
Due to the passing of Senate Bill 49, titled The Parents Bill of Rights, Safe Touch is now on a temporary pause.
Jessica Deher, the Director of Student Engagement for Orange County says the program has been a positive presence in her district.
Jessica Dreher
“We’re also teaching students how to be successful citizens inside and outside of school and a part of that is being safe and knowing when things aren’t appropriate and appropriate.”
Elaina James
This program’s public school presence came to a halt after The Parents Bill of Rights went into effect in August. It requires public schools to notify parents of official changes in students’ legal name or pronouns. It bans curriculums from including gender identity, sexual activity or sexuality for students in kindergarten through fourth grade.
The Safe Touch program is caught in the middle because it discusses gender and sexuality based bullying and relationship dynamics in fourth and fifth grade classes.
Carolyn Halpern, professor and chair of the Department of Maternal and Child Health in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, says the bill isn’t based in scientific research
Carolyn Halpern
“Talking about gender, talking about violence, talking about consent, talking about negotiating conflict, the whole person kind of approach is what’s really needed in terms of promoting healthy relationships and healthy sexuality.”
Elaina James
The bill passed in August, just in time for the start of school. Mavrogenis says the vague language has left school districts to parse out what implementing this bill will look like in the classroom.
Alex Mavrogenis
“So this may look different from district to district in the state of North Carolina. This creates a chilling effect.”
Elaina James
Andy Jenks is the Chief Communications Officer for Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools.
Andy Jenks
“One of the earliest requirements is that school districts, including ours, simply post the rights to our website… Moving forward, there are policy revisions that we have to look into. We have to look at making connections to various services throughout our local jurisdiction.”
Elaina James
Under legal advice, the two school districts made the decision to place a temporary pause on Safe Touch as they continue to evaluate what this bill will look like in their county.
Given the pause, The Safe Touch program is taking the opportunity to fulfill requests from private schools, expand their online presence, and work to collaborate with community partners
Alex Mavrogenis
“What’s really difficult about this news is that there’s children who we would have been able to reach that I don’t know if we’ll be able to reach… It’s the nature of this work. We’re survivors, and we survive.”
Elaina James
In Chapel Hill, I’m Elaina James.
