Asian teens say dating violence...

healthy—and abusive—relationships. But current curriculums rarely cover these skills. Sharma recalls that only one class in his high school covered relationships at all; Sex education classes usually focus on sexually transmitted diseases and related topics instead. As a result, youth may not be able to recognize signs of abusive relationships in themselves or their peers.

“Relationships are relevant to every single person. I couldn’t say the same about calculus,” Sharma says. “So while teaching about relationships may not fall into the conventional norms of schooling in America or let alone anywhere, those norms need to change.”

In the meantime, workshops like the “Building Healthy Relationships” training that Kim teaches in schools bridge that gap. “Building Healthy Relationships” covers red and green flags in relationships and teaches teens to recognize healthy and unhealthy behaviors. This allows them to not only recognize those flags in their own lives, but help their friends and peers as well.

A key part of the training, Kim says, is learning about consent and boundaries. Many teens don’t know that consent still exists even if they are in a relationship. As a result, they may feel pressured into doing things they are not comfortable with. But because consent isn’t taught in schools, Kim says, many teens she worked with did not learn these important facts until they attended the training.

“There’s this ideology where a lot of teenagers believe that if you’re in a relationship, you’re entitled to the other person’s body. And what they fail to realize is that even in a relationship, you have ownership over your own body,” she says. “Consent doesn’t just come freely.”

Education is not only important to prevent teens from entering violent relationships—but to prevent abusers from learning violent behavior in the first