On March 3rd, Amador hosted a virtual assembly during ACCESS where guest speaker Mike Domitrz educated students about consent and how to make safe choices within their relationships. 

“From a counseling perspective, consent is a really important topic to cover. I feel like these conversations tend to happen with counselors in more one-on-one settings. I think it will be good for students to know that this topic is becoming a district wide conversation,” said support counselor Jennifer Yu.

A few of the key takeaways from the virtual assembly included acknowledging boundaries, supporting sexual assault survivors and addressing the social pressures of today. These topics are crucial for students to learn so that they are made aware and can build healthy boundaries with peers in the future.

“I think learning about consent is important because it is imperative for kids our age to learn how to be safe and how to conduct their actions and what they do in certain circumstances. Consent can be applied to any field, not just the certain fields that were talked about on Thursday,” said Shambhavi Singh (’24). 

During the broadcasted presentation, student volunteers were called in to play roles in various situations meant to mirror real life circumstances.

“I participated in a demonstration of an impolite way to say, ‘can I kiss you’ or to make a move. It’s always important to ask for consent because if the other person doesn’t get your hint you could make the situation awkward or inappropriate,” said assembly participant Terrence Moore (’23).

The topic of building boundaries and strong relationships has and will continue to be an important subject of discussion throughout the Pleasanton school district. This assembly has only begun to expose students to more information regarding healthy partnerships and is a step towards creating a community of support and strength. 

“I was in high school twenty years ago. But those boundary crossings are happening the same way they were happening when I was younger, literally nothing has changed. Now the conversation has changed a little bit. It’s still a hard place to navigate and I hope we are moving in a better direction,” said counselor Audrey Zarrinkhat.