The Public Safety Services Program’s first year students provided their peers, as well as the faculty and staff of Stafford Technical Center, with a presentation into the issue of teen dating violence. Regrettably, this issue is far more common than people know, with about 40% of teen girls knowing a peer who either is or has been in an abusive relationship. Abuse can take many forms, from verbal to emotional to social isolation, and physical abuse. Murder is the ultimate form of physical abuse. Women and teen girls are more likely to be murdered by their spouses, lovers, or boyfriends than by strangers by a 2 to 1 ratio.
Often, young females in our society are not taught about the dangers of dating violence, so the presentation included the warning signs that someone might be in an abusive relationship, how to break up with an abuser safely, how to get help if you are in an abusive relationship, and the patterns of behaviors that abusers go through. While the presentation dealt primarily with male abusers and female victims, which is the case 85% of the time, some males are abused by female partners and some homosexuals of both sexes are abused by their partners as well.
The students, who are also members of Stafford Technical Center’s SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) Chapter, also included some public service announcement, which heightened the effectiveness of their presentation. The audience consisted of all the Stafford Technical Center students who were not on an internship co-op that day, Stafford faculty and staff members. The number was estimated at around 250 people. The students highlighted the efforts of the State of Rhode Island, which passed the Lindsay Ann Burke Act, which mandated that all R.I. students in grades 7-12 get training about domestic violence as part of their school’s curriculum.
The presenters included Geoffry McDonald, a senior at Otter Valley Union High School, who was the Project Director for this program, Rutland High School seniors James Bonilla, Christopher Crout, and Jordan Grenier, Proctor High School junior Kyle Lenher, Kayla Stewart, a junior at West Rutland High School, and juniors Cierra Phelps, James Reed, and Haley Cotrupi from Mill River Union High School. It was a very powerful presentation. The Public Safety Services Group is available to present this information to other schools.