Have a ‘cuppa’ consent

Counselors use tea analogy to teach students how to know if they have consent for sex

By Troy Daugherty

Consent is an important issue to understand when you are in college, especially when it comes to dealing with sex.

This is why Jacob Gunden, the coordinator of equity and compliance for HCC, is hoping a new video with a little humor can really get students’ attention.

He is also hopeful the video will explain to them what the proper circumstances are for them to get consent from a potential sexual partner.

According to Gunden, this is just an aspect of the school’s new policy for sexual discrimination, which started in March of 2015.

He explained the video is “a useful and highly memorable tool for helping educate the campus community about the meaning and importance of consent.”

The video is called “Tea Consent,” and can be found on the HCC website.

If you go to the school’s main website, then go to Campus Safety and Equity, click Equity and Compliance, then on the right hand side there will be resource links.

Within that there are “Helpful Videos”, and, “Explaining Sexual Consent with a Cup of Tea” is the first video.

It shows stick figures having tea in multiple circumstances as the narrator explains that asking someone for sex is “like asking them if they want tea.”

The video is supposed to act as a simple explanation for asking someone for consent and knowing if they are lucid enough to really mean it.

If not, then you are to cancel your plans for having tea with that person.

For example, if you were to ask someone if they wanted tea and they said “no,” would you force them to drink it?

Well, it is the same for sex.

If a person says “No,” then that person simply does not want to have sex.

The video goes over several different scenarios, but they mostly come down to three things.

First, do not have sex with people when they say “no.”

Second, do not have sex with people while they are unconscious or sleeping.

And lastly, do not continue to have sex with someone if they become unconscious while in the middle of sex.

The only notable thing the video did not seem to include was an explanation of how verbal consent doesn’t always count, legally, if someone is under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Gunden said the video makes good points, but by itself is not the ultimate message.

“No single tool, video, article, or example is by itself a sufficient method for educating students and employees about the concept of consent,” he said.

“When incorporated into a more robust and comprehensive curriculum or training, however, I feel the video is incredibly effective and helps highlight key aspects and common scenarios.”

This is not the only tool the school will be using for this type of education, he said..

James Teeter, McPherson, thought the video was effective.

“The video was different,” Teeter said. “Never seen anything like it before. It made its point on consent and helped me to understand it a little more.”

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