Feb 14, 2008
A powerful reminder of teen dating violence on display at Wilton High School
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“Sarah, 15, was lying on the floor an ice pack on her aching ribs and for a moment, she had no idea where she was; then her boyfriend’s face came into focus. Sonja, 16, an honor student who was a classical pianist, was repeatedly told by her boyfriend that she was ugly, and really not so very smart.”
These stories, along with six others, appeared on eight cardboard silhouettes in the lobby of Wilton High School last week, raising awareness of teen dating violence.
They are the stories of real girls, the same ages as the students who walked by the cutouts on their way to class.
High school juniors Sarah Dephtereos and Katie Hackett, working with Norwalk’s Domestic Violence Crisis Center Teen Advisory Board, WHS social worker Kim Zemo and the student group Peervention — which helps raise awareness on social issues such as substance abuse, depression and violence and councils other students — sought to familiarize students at WHS with the problem of teen dating violence.
“We used the money that we raised at a scarf fund-raiser in December to pay for them,” Katie said of the silhouettes.
“The silhouettes are really effective,” Sarah said. “They’ve had them up at UConn and in the Darien Public Library.”
To Sarah and Katie, teen dating violence isn’t something that is absent in Wilton, but it certainly isn’t something that is widely discussed.
“Most kids at the high school don’t know that this is going on,” Sarah said in an interview last week. “It’s a taboo topic; most people don’t talk about it.”
“I think it’s something that a lot of people ignore or don’t really think about in terms of being local, in the high school or in Wilton,” Katie said.
Susan Delaney, director of community and education services for the Domestic Violence Crisis Center, said teen dating violence is “a problem all over this country” and the prevalence of it in Fairfield County “follows the national statistics.”
In 2007, there were 56 cases of domestic assault reported to Wilton police, Sarah said.
“For every reported case, there are six unreported cases,” she said, adding: an estimated 300 domestic violence assaults across all age groups likely occurred last year in Wilton.
In addition to the silhouettes, the girls also raised awareness in different ways.
Last week, Sarah and Katie sold T-shirts printed with a design that looks geometrical at first, but upon closer inspection reveals the word “abuse” along with the sentence, “The signs of teen dating violence aren’t always so easy to recognize.” On Friday, Peervention helped Sarah and Katie run a table where students paid $1 to draw an outline of their hand and sign their name on a poster titled “Hands are not for Hitting.” Proceeds from both of these were donated to the Domestic Violence Crisis Center.
Both Sarah and Katie took a 20-hour training course last fall and are certified counselors for the Domestic Violence Crisis Center, which provides them with direct contact to victims of domestic violence, Ms. Delaney said.
“Sarah and I try to incorporate some of what we learn into the curriculum at WHS,” Katie said. “No one wants to talk about it, the administration doesn’t want to talk about it either.”
“Sometimes you may not realize you’re in an abusive relationship,” Ms. Delaney said. Katie and Sarah did a “fantastic job and really created awareness” to help “awaken their peer group,” she said.
Ms. Delaney said if someone feels they are in an abusive relationship, they can call the Domestic Violence Crisis Center at 852-1980 or the state hotline at (888) 774-2900, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All calls are confidential, and the call centers don’t subscribe to Caller ID.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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