By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Raven Boettger with Brighthouse spoke with athletes coming to the Hutch CC campus last month about consent.
"Every state law will tell you what consent is not, but it does not tell you what consent is," Boettger said. "We will have a discussion on that. Then, we kind of work our way into false reporting. A lot of times the media uses that terminology when a jury comes back and finds the defendant not guilty. A lot of times our athletes assume that means that the victim was then lying and that the report was false. We kind of discuss that."
Consent must be clearly communicated by a partner that is both of age and sober enough to make the decision.
"Consent is a definite yes," Boettger said. "If there's any hesitation or any doubt in somebody's mind on whether or not they have that yes, whether it's given through body language, or straight up asking them if this is okay, a yes is a yes, if there's any doubt in their mind whether or not they have that, then they need to ask more questions."
The age of consent in Kansas is 16.
"If they are 15, they are not able to give consent," Boettger said. "A lot of times, a lot of these athletes are coming from different states and different backgrounds and some think that age of consent is 14. Others may think it's 17 or 18, we're just getting that clear definition, that in the state of Kansas, it is 16."
It's also important to note that if a person is intoxicated, even a yes does not mean consent.