Facing the Ugly Truth: Teens Learn About Dating Violence
Mira describes how LACAAW uses their programs to educate teens about abusive relationships.
“When Jeep Hauser, 25, was 14 years old, a friend told him that she had been raped by a neighbor. Hauser didn’t know what to do. There was help available, but he just wasn’t aware of it.
But now he and the staff at the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women [LACAAW] want to end the unawareness among teenagers. They plan to accomplish this by educating high school students about dating abuse prevention and ways to get out of an abusive relationship. Last year, LACAAW reached 4,000 teenagers, with about a dozen schools in the beach cities to the Valley currently receiving the eight-unit curriculum written with Barrie Levy, author of “In Love and In Danger” and other books on teen dating violence, as the advisor.
“The request [for the program] is growing in ever-increasing numbers. We like to think that the program has been very effective,” said Hauser, one of many volunteers at LACAAW. “The material is easy to comprehend. Teachers have said that the mood in the class changes as the students learn from the curriculum. We’ve gotten letters from students who say they enjoyed it and learned a lot from it.”
Twenty-eight percent of teen relationships turn
violent
And students need to learn about abusive relationships. According to Hauser, 28 percent of teen relationships turn out to be violent.
“It happens. It’s out there. It’s an awful, ugly fact. We like to think that our youth are in safe, healthy relationships, but that’s not always the case,” he said.
Evident in the 1,000 to 1,200 phone calls received monthly on LACAAW’s rape and battery hotline (about 30 percent of the calls are from people under the age of 24), abuse among young people is prevalent.
“Call the hotline. It’s free, totally confidential, and safe. There is help out there,” Hauser said.
LACAAW’s 24-hour hotline: (213) 626-3393 or (310) 392-8381
How To Spot An Abusive Guy
qlacks self-esteem
qis a traditionalist
qis emotionally inexpressive
qis unassertive
qlacks friends
qdislikes his job or is umemployed
qdrinks heavily or abuses other drugs
qis authoritarian toward people who are unable to defend themselves
q grew up in a violent home
qis moody
qpunches walls
qwas a violent child
qtreats others violently
qshows contempt for women in his family or women in general
Source: Dr. Mildred Daley Pagelow of California State University, Fullerton, an authority on domestic violence”