INFO FOR SCHOOLS
WHAT SCHOOLS CAN DO
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What Schools Can Do
Make Your School A Safe Place – Evaluate
the safety and security of the school environment and the quality and
availability of resources to ensure safety.
Increase Awareness – Educate your students,
faculty, and staff about the problems of domestic and dating violence
in your community. Provide adequate training on signs that often accompany
abuse, on victim’s legal rights, and on available resources.
Review and Revise Your School Policy on Dating Violence
– Review your school’s policies and disciplinary sanctions to
assess that violence against women and girls is treated as seriously as
other crimes, with equally severe punishments.
Develop an Administration Response to Violence on
Campus – Establish protocols to manage complaints of violence
on your campus with care for the victim as the first priority. Your protocol
should include a clearly defined process for providing assistance to victims
and holding the perpetrators accountable.
Coordinate Resources – Identify and establish
a network of resources addressing violence against women and girls in
your community.
Encourage Reporting of Violence – Through
orientation and awareness of programs in school, encourage students, faculty,
and staff to report incidents of violence. Develop effective linkages
between school and community law enforcement personnel.
Provide Services to the Campus Community –
Support a coordinated community response to violence against women and
girls; ensure that services are comprehensive and appropriate for the
entire school community.
Get the Message Out to the Campus Community –
Speak out against domestic and dating violence. Communicate expectations
about appropriate conduct. Post information about available resources
in hallways, cafeterias, bathrooms, classrooms, and other places students
are likely to see it.
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R.A.P. CURRICULUM OVERVIEW
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R.A.P. Curriculum
RELATIONSHIP ABUSE PREVENTION
Curriculum Overview
SESSION 1
Laying the Foundation: Defining Abuse
This workshop introduces students to the goals and activities
of the R.A.P. Project. It provides students with a fundamental understanding
and definition of abuse and identifies the various types of abuse. Through
interactive activities and discussions, students also have the opportunity
to explore the cycle of violence in abusive relationships and learn how
this cycle is often perpetuated by those who have been abused or have
witnessed abuse themselves.
SESSION 2
Where We Learn Violence and Abusive Behaviors and Power &
Control -Part I
In this workshop students discuss violence as a learned
behavior. They discover how and where abusive behaviors originate and
develop. They also examine the inter-related nature of violence in the
home, in schools, in the media, and in society. Contemporary music videos
that depict relationship abuse are viewed and analyzed. Power and control
tactics, an integral characteristic of abuse, are examined in depth through
both discussion and role play.
SESSION 3
Where We Learn Violence and Abusive Behaviors - Part II
Continuing the theme of violence as a learned behavior,
session three explains the link between racism, sexism and violent behavior.
An activity that focuses on gender stereotypes is presented and students
begin to recognize how boys and girls (and men and women) who don’t
conform to stereotypical categories are frequently subject to various
types of abuse including bullying, sexual harassment, dating violence
and other forms of verbal, sexual and physical assaults. Students are
then given the opportunity to define for themselves how they think the
media influences violent and abusive behaviors.
SESSION 4
Barriers to Leaving An Abusive Relationship & How To Be An
Ally
During this workshop students hear both true stories
and poetry written by youth that have been victims of dating violence
and learn how difficult it can be to leave an abusive partner. These stories
effectively illustrate the progression of violence and demonstrate how
tightly one can become bound within the cycle of violence. A discussion
of why someone might choose to abuse their partner as well as typical
barriers to leaving the relationship follows the stories. The final part
of the workshop emphasizes the importance of being an ally to an abused
teen and allows students to engage in role-plays demonstrating supportive
techniques.
SESSION 5
Building A Healthy Relationship
At this point in the curriculum, students are aware of
the prevalence of abusive relationships and the dynamics therein. This
session is an opportunity for students to define the elements of a healthy
relationship. Students identify behaviors and characteristics of healthy
relationships including equality, trust and support, negotiation and fairness,
sexual safety, and non-threatening behavior. Students also have the opportunity
to perform role-plays where they act out abusive and non-abusive behaviors
they have learned from the RAP curriculum.
SESSION 6
Preventing Violence & Staying Safe While
Resolving Conflicts
In this final workshop students discuss basic techniques
for peaceful conflict resolution and non-violent self-defense with an
emphasis on maintaining their safety. Students share their ideas on how
to prevent violence and decrease the likelihood of abuse in their relationships
and communities. In addition, the facilitators assist students in developing
techniques to use in everyday life to prevent violence. At the end of
the session, students receive a RAP T-shirt designed by youth as well
as a resource card with local youth-friendly service providers and helpful
hotline numbers.
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TIPS FOR TEACHERS
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Tips for Teachers
If you are concerned about the issue of teen dating violence, here are
some things you can do to address the issue at your school:
- Teach about relationship abuse.
- Encourage other teachers to do the same. If you are in Alameda County,
invite R.A.P. educators to your class, then facilitate a class discussion.
- Start a peer education program on teen dating violence.
- Create bulletin boards in the school cafeteria or classroom to raise
awareness.
- Organize a class project for Domestic Violence Awareness Month (October).
- Encourage the school to purchase books about healthy relationships
and the cycle of violence for the school library.
- Learn how to recognize the warning signs that a child might be headed
for violence and know how to tap school resources to get appropriate
help.
- Encourage and sponsor student-led anti-violence activities such as
peer education, teen courts, meditation, mentoring, or tutoring.
- Firmly, consistently, and fairly enforce school policies that seek
to reduce the risk of violence. Take responsibility for areas outside
as well as inside your classroom.
- Insist that students not resort to name-calling or teasing. Encourage
them to demonstrate the respect they expect. Involve them in developing
standards of acceptable behavior.
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ADOLECENT RELATIONSHIP VIOLENCE
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Adolecent Relationship Violence
Teen Dating Violence Statistics
Women do not have to be married or living with a partner to be victims
of domestic violence. In fact, battering among young people who are “dating”
- also called teen dating violence or relationship violence - is all too
common. Some of the staggering statistics regarding teens and relationship
violence include:
- Approximately one - third of young people experience violence in their
relationship, about the same rate reported by adults.
- A study among pregnant teens revealed that one in five, or 20%, experience
physical or sexual violence during pregnancy.
- A recent study of high school students determined that 59% had experienced
at least one dating violence incident over the course of the year.
- For adolescent girls between the ages of 13-18 who have dated, 36%
reported that they have experienced physical violence in a dating relationship.
- When questioned about their worst experiences of dating violence,
47.8% of girls reported serious harm and physical injury in 33.6% of
the incidents.
- A study of 8th and 9th grade male and female students indicated that
25% had been victims of non-sexual dating violence and 8% had been victims
of sexual dating violence.
Sadly, intimate partner violence among teens has been largely ignored
by the adults around them, most likely because adolescents and their relationships
are not taken seriously. Adults tend to believe that teen relationships
are transient and less significant than adult relationships. Also, adults
and youth alike are often reluctant to talk about violence within relationships.
These two factors may serve to isolate young women from the support they
need when they are confronted with a violent date or boyfriend.
The consequences of violence are significant in the lives of young women.
According to the FBI, 30% of the women murdered each year in the U.S.
were killed by a husband or boyfriend. Of these women, 20% are between
15 and 24 years old. These numbers reflect only the crimes that are
reported.
Source: Statewide Adolescent Relationship Violence Prevention Training
Project - Resource Workbook. DHS, Maternal and Child Health Branch, Adolescent
Family Life Program
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UNIQUE ASPECTS OF TEEN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS
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Unique Aspects of Teen Abusive Relationships
Although abuse in teen dating relationships can be similar to abuse in
adult relationships, there are some unique problems for young people facing
abuse. They include:
Being unable to tell anyone – teenagers often won’t
tell their parents about their abusive relationship because they fear
losing newly earned privileges and freedoms.
A lack of resources and services – there are far fewer resources
and services, such as support groups and shelters, for teens than there
are for adults.
Teen relationships are not taken seriously – adults often
think of teen relationships as only “puppy love”. Adults seem
to think that because teenage relationships are often short term and may
seem superficial that they are easy to break off. In fact, teenagers can
experience relationships as intensely as adults, and might find it very
hard to leave.
Pressure to be in a relationship – some teens feel pressure
to have a boy/girlfriend to fit in with their friends or to prove their
popularity. The pressure to be in a relationship may be so great that
any partner, even an abusive one, is better than being alone.
Being unable to avoid the abuser – if both partners attend
the same school, a victim will have a difficult time avoiding the abuser.
It may be very hard to break up with him if she is faced with him and
his friends everyday at school.
Lack of role models or comparisons – if a teen is dating
for the first time, he/she may have nothing to compare the experience
to. Therefore, if they are abused, they may think that this is normal
for a dating relationship.
Adolescent insecurities – teens may fear any or all of the
following:
- Rumors or stories being told about them
- Not being believed/being blamed
- Not being supported
- Not being liked/abandonment by friends/becoming unpopular
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