Too often, violence is part of a dating relationship. For some teenagers, though, it’s an eye-opener to learn that dating violence isn’t OK and it shouldn’t be tolerated.
“If you grow up in that kind of an environment, that’s normal for you,” said Tomieka Daniel, an attorney at the Georgia Legal Services program.
February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, but Daniel visits schools across Middle Georgia throughout the year to help educate students about dating violence and their rights to make it stop.
“My hope is that if I can reach them when they’re young, I won’t be representing them as adults” in cases of domestic violence, Daniel said. Georgia Legal Services is a nonprofit agency that provides free legal representation to low-income and elderly clients.
Using a Department of Justice grant, Daniel has conducted dating violence programs in Hancock, Johnson, Laurens, Montgomery, Putnam and Treutlen counties, reaching 1,600 teenagers. While the grant provides funding for programs in 13 rural Georgia counties, Daniel also has presented programs in Houston County.
The programs are aimed at students in both middle and high schools.
Daniel said of the students she’s talked with, 1 in 4 say they have been in an abusive relationship. She’s heard of abuse starting with students as young as 12.
“That really surprised me,” she said.
After the programs, students have approached Daniel and she’s been able to help them obtain protective orders to stop stalking, harassment and abuse. In some situations, she’s worked with schools to arrange special meeting times so teenagers don’t have to interact with their abusers at school.
Daniel said dating violence often starts as verbal abuse, then escalates to physical abuse.
This month, state Sen. Gloria Butler introduced a bill in the state Legislature that would add a teen dating violence awareness component to sex education curricula taught in seventh through 12th grades.
Butler, a Democrat representing portions of DeKalb and Gwinnett counties, said she first introduced the bill in the 2010 session after hearing about a high school girl in Clarkston who was choked to death by her boyfriend. The bill didn’t make it to the Senate floor in 2010.
This year’s legislation, Senate Bill 46, has been assigned to the Education and Youth Committee. To make it to the Senate floor, the measure must pass that committee and the Rules Committee.
Macon Mayor Robert Reichert signed a proclamation on teenage dating violence awareness Thursday afternoon at City Hall. Doing so was a way of promoting awareness for the issue, mayoral spokesman Andrew Blascovich said.
Daniel said she planned to take a copy of the proclamation to Thursday night’s meeting of the Bibb County school board and to offer to present programs in Bibb County schools. So far, she has not visited schools in Bibb.
As part of Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, the Central Georgia Council on Family Violence is presenting a screening of “Reviving Ophelia,” a movie about a 17-year-old girl abused by her boyfriend who gains the courage to leave the relationship.
The screening, scheduled for 6 p.m. Feb. 24 at the Buck Melton Community Center on Anthony Road, will be followed by a group discussion led by members of the council. The event is free and open to teens and their parents.
To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398.
