Raising awareness while combating the issue

Each year, Student Government students choose a charity and then spend the school year focusing on how to raise awareness and money for their chosen organization. This year Colony High School’s Student Government chose the Women’s Resource Center to support.

The Women’s Resource Center is the only facility open to women and children in distress in the Valley. The Center is located in Palmer, near the fairgrounds. They have a 24 hour hotline and accept “clients” any time of day or night. In addition to offering a safe place for women to flee, they also help women regroup: transportation, legal services, job skills, counseling, and more. They provide a whole slew of services to help women and their children heal. The facility has 32 beds and women can stay as long as they need. They are an impressive charity.

Once Student Government chose this charity to work with, we asked their Outreach Coordinator to come talk to our Leadership class, which supports Student Government. Their representative came and gave a very appropriate, yet sobering presentation about the current statistics and causes of domestic violence.

Domestic violence starts somewhere. We tend to think of domestic violence as something that only happens in a home, between a husband and a wife. Most movies reinforce this idea. I believe that the seeds of domestic violence start much earlier. I believe that a number of factors contribute to the rise in violence toward women, and some of these contributors begin in high school.

Today, kids sext. They take, share, and post naked pictures of themselves. I believe this is a low level contributor to domestic violence. When a girl sends a naked photo of herself to a boy, she is opening doors and attention she may not be meaning to attract. When acts and actions become normalized, lines become blurred and miscommunication results. The next time this boy and girl are somewhere alone, he may push for things he thinks she’s offered. She may be caught off-guard and violence may occur.

Young males today often lack strong, positive male role models. There seems to be an increase either in the occurrence or the reporting of professional athletes abusing their partners. When these athletes receive little or no punishment from their organizations, it sends another blurry message about the acceptability of domestic violence. A young person may ask themselves, “Is domestic violence really a big deal?”

This may sound odd, but I believe because kids get the message from health related classes and public service announcements every year, the issue becomes something that happens to other people. The issue becomes normalized and its significance and importance becomes lessened.

I’m not an expert on domestic violence. I understand that domestic violence in adult relationships stems from serious issues: economic, family, history, etc. I do think though that the groundwork can be laid during the high school years when kids are learning their own relationship skills. These years are tricky to navigate.

Sometimes we, as adults, assume that kids understand the subtle cues of communication that exists between men and women. I don’t think we can continue with that assumption. If there’s one thing I’ve learned through my years of teaching, it’s that as soon as I assume kids should know something, I’m in for a big surprise. Take time to talk to your kids about domestic violence.

Brandy J. Bishop teaches English and Leadership at Colony High School.