To Avoid Sexual Assault, Bronx Teens Focus on 'Enthusiastic Consent'

With an ongoing national conversation around sexual assault on college campuses, and how to prevent it, students at Evander Childs Educational Complex in the Bronx took part in workshops on what it means to give and receive consent to sex.

Students from all six high schools on Evander's campus took part in workshops that covered topics including healthy relationships and preventing relationship abuse. 

Sara Gonzalez, from the organization Day One, leads students in a workshop on sexual consent.

(Yasmeen Khan)

 "One of the main things that they learned was about communication," said Kristina Mereigh, a community health organizer at the campus health clinic. "You need to learn how to talk. Sex is not something you jump into. It’s something you communicate about."

Mereigh works for Montefiore Medical Center which runs the health clinic serving all the schools in the building.  

Sexual consent programs are aimed at increasing communication among young partners. (Yasmeen Khan)