State House Approves Bill To Provide Sexual Assault Education In Schools

A new bill approved Tuesday by the House will provide sexual assault prevention and response education to Oklahoma Schools. This bill comes as a direct result from protests that took place outside a Norman high school last year involving victims of rape allegations.

The grassroots victim's advocacy group, Yes All Daughters, calls this legislation a huge win; A bill that will now keep the conversation going about sexual assault and how to prevent it.

Hundreds of students demonstrated outside Norman High last November, protesting the school's handling of conflicts among students in the wake of several rape allegations.

The students' cries for change were heard by a newly elected Oklahoma Representative Claudia Griffith of Norman.

“They reached out to us and we met with her about a week after the protest,” said Stacey Wright, Yes All Daughters Founder.

Yes All Daughters founder Stacey Wright organized the protest after learning from her niece about multiple teenage girls who say they were raped by the same classmate. House Bill 1684 now sits on Gov. Mary Fallin's desk waiting to be signed.

It is a bill that took thousands of petitioners' signatures to make it on the agenda to even be heard.

“It's huge. It's monumental. I can't believe what we've done in under 6 months,” said Wright.

The bill adds sexual assault response and training in Oklahoma schools.

“I think it will prepare administrators and hopefully students knowing how to respond to people that have been victims of this kind of violence,” she said.

Yes All Daughters celebrates its six month anniversary next week and hopes to continue its movement and become a nonprofit organization by the organization's first anniversary in November.