Department of Education fights teenage violence

The U.S. Department of Education recently sent a letter to school officials across the country urging them to take more steps to end gender-based violence.

The letter, signed by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, said President Barack Obama declared February 2013 National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month.

“Gender-based violence has serious consequences for victims and their schools,” the letter reads. “Witnessing violence has been associated with decreased school attendance and academic performance. Further, teenage victims of physical dating violence are more likely than their non-abused peers to smoke, use drugs, engage in unhealthy dieting, engage in risky sexual behaviors and attempt or consider suicide.”

According to a Center for Disease Control and Prevention 2012 report, 9 percent of high school students reported being hit, slapped or physically hurt purposely by a boyfriend or girlfriend in the year before the survey was conducted.

In addition, 15 percent of adult men and 22.4 percent of adult women who experienced rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner had first experienced relationship-related violence between the ages of 11 and 17.

The Department also released a toolkit to help schools utilize available resources to help students.

Shani Robin, crisis intervention services coordinator at Bloomington Middle Way House, said although teens only make up about 10 to 15 percent of cases each month, they spend a lot of time in schools teaching high school students how to prevent violence.

Indiana currently has the second-highest number in the country of sexual assaults among teens, Robin said.

During the four-day information session, they start by talking about gender stereotypes and end with rape, sexual assault and what constitutes consent.

“It seems to be effective,” she said.

They also address same-sex rape, because Middle Way does not agree with the Indiana definition of rape, which states that rape can only occur between people of the opposite sex.

Middle Way’s definition is “penetration into any bodily orifice.”

“It’s a very in-depth curriculum,” she said. “We don’t sugarcoat anything.”

In addition to information, Middle Way also recruits students to be advocates and confidants for their fellow peers. When students do show up to Middle Way, she said each case is handled differently, but said the most important aspect of recovery is a good support system.

“We live in a victim-blaming society,” she said.

Cierra Olivia Thomas-Williams, prevention programs coordinator at Middle Way, agreed with Robin. She said there is nothing one can do to prevent a rapist from raping someone.

“We are all at risk of this,” she said.

Thomas-Williams said schools are overwhelmed by the large number of students compared to the number of teachers, resulting in a lack of appropriate supervision during passing periods.

She said schools are also too tolerant of certain actions, such as girls smacking each other on the butt and boys punching each other as “greetings.”

“There is a misunderstanding of the actual behaviors that are going on in the student body,” she said.

Thomas-Williams said it’s important for schools to admit there is a problem and realize even verbal and mental abuse should be considered sexual violence.

She noted last spring semester, a sophomore student at Bloomington High School North committed suicide after being called a “slut” every day. She said if the damage isn’t visible, people are less likely to call it a crime.

“They seem less harmful, but they’re not,” she said.