LETTER: There was need for Bree’s Law BEFORE My Brutal Attack

To the editor:

Hello my name is Lory Miebs. I am writing to talk about the Bree’s Law Naming Bill (HB 214) and how Sen. John Coghill is not giving it Judiciary hearing even though it has overwhelming support in the public and legislature.

I may not have known Bree Moore in life. I wish had, but I’m fortunate to have been able to connect with her through her parents, friends, and her tragic story. The resulting interconnection makes me feel like I’ve known her for years. She was truly a beautiful young lady with a beautiful soul.

Bree was only 19 years old when she found herself in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend. She did not tell her parents or her friends because she felt embarrassed and stigmatized. I can sympathize, because, like Bree, I was also a victim of teen dating violence back in 2009, when I attended Service High School. My boyfriend at the time was abusing me and I didn’t know how to tell anyone, because like Bree and so many other young women, I didn’t have the knowledge of what a healthy teen dating relationship was supposed to look like. I was just learning how to navigate through dating. I thought when my boyfriend was being controlling or jealous, it was because he cared about me and wanted to spend time with me, because that is how I observed other friends in their relationships. But what I learned from my watching my peers was not healthy. I learned that the hard way.

I was only 17 years old when my ex-boyfriend lured me into the woods on school grounds. I had broken up with him three months prior, but he convinced me to go for a walk one last time. I conceded. He said he wanted to give me a goodbye present and had close my eyes. That is when he started to brutally stab me. He continued until he had inflicted more than 76 stab wounds on my entire torso, legs, and head. Terrified, I recalled something I was taught by a guest speaker who had come into my school years earlier. He said that if you are in trouble and fear for your life to start screaming at the top of your lungs. So as I lay on the ground trying to protect myself from the knife that was being plunged into me, I used every bit of energy I had remaining to scream louder than I though possible. The training I learned in school by a guest speaker saved my life that day. The screams caught the attention of two Service High students a skier on the ski trail near by. He came to my aid and if it were not for him, I would have died in the woods next to Service High that day.

To teach kids how to help themselves or others is one of the most important educations we can receive. I am living proof. How something so simple that is taught years earlier can be so incredibly life saving then or at a future time. Naming the teen dating violence prevention portion of the Alaska Safe Children’s Act, as Bree’s Law, shares Bree’s story and gives students instant access to safe dating tools that they will carry with them for life. Tools they can access in their time of need. The naming of Bree’s Law (HB 214) connects Bree’s story to the community, it gives dating and domestic violence a face, a life, and a meaning. I wish I would have had healthy dating relationship education when I was in school, because if I would have know what red flags to look for in my dating relationship, I probably would never started dating the boy who almost took my life.

Please call and email every Senator in the Alaska Legislature and have them urge Sen. John Coghill to give HB 214 the Bree’s Law Naming Bill a hearing. Go to http://akleg.gov/senate.php for phone numbers and email addresses of all Alaska’s Senators.