The Utah House Education Committee messed up.
Not only does Utah have more rape victims than the national average, but we have also been working on a massive backlog of rape kits that have not been tested. Safe to say Utah isn’t great at preventing rape or prosecuting it.
What is Utah specifically doing to prevent rape? We have the Violence and Injury Prevention Program (VIPP) and the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault (UCASA) that use funding focused on evidence-based practices, specifically the STOP SV approach compiled by the CDC. This program focuses on reducing risk factors and increasing protective factors for sexual violence. The problem is that we have lawmakers who are actively voting down policies that align with this program. The result of HB177 is a prime example of this deplorable behavior.
One principle of this program involves “teaching healthy relationships, safe dating, and intimate relationships skills for adolescents.” We should be teaching consent as part of our sex education curriculum. Lawmakers prevented this information — information our own health department endorses — from being taught in our schools.
VIPP also uses the “bystander approach,” which includes “[making] sure any sexual act is OK with your partner if you initiate.” This is consent. 76.8% of rape cases in Utah go unreported. How can one identify and report when rape occurs if they do not understand what constitutes rape due to a lack of education related to consent? How can a perpetrator understand what crosses the line to rape if they don’t have a full and comprehensive grasp on what consent means, what it looks like, and how to get consent?
I wonder what lawmakers will do going forward to prevent rape in Utah when they are unable to support a simple, evidence-based way to prevent rape.
Angela Hronek, Layton
