Montclair High School Teens Get Lesson in Preventing Dating Abuse
One in three teens experiences verbal or physical abuse from a dating partner. This shocking statistic is the reason that “safe dating” education is now required by law in New Jersey.
One such program took place on October 24th and 25th at Montclair High School, where students in Lorraine Krimmel’s freshman health classes took part in a two-day program on teen dating abuse prevention and awareness. The ninth graders learned how to recognize signs of abuse, how to end abusive relationships, and how to develop healthy dating relationships.
“It’s a perfect time for parents to take the opportunity to speak with their children about healthy and unhealthy dating relationships,” said Roberta Zacker, one of the program presenters. “Ask what they learned. Ask about the brochure they received. Even if your child is not in this particular class, mentioning the class is a good launching point to start a conversation.”
The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), Essex County Section, which, for 20 years, has been providing the classroom program free of charge in Essex County high schools, suburban, and urban, sponsors the Teen Dating Abuse program. The program dispatches trained dating-abuse educators to conduct the workshops in high school health classes.
The NCJW Teen Dating Abuse program fulfills the new N.J. Department of Education requirement to incorporate dating violence education into the health curriculum.
In the early years, the TDA program was designated for high school juniors. Now it’s primarily presented to freshman classes because teens are maturing earlier and the problem is happening at younger ages. In recent years, the curriculum has been updated to include information about the use of texting, social networking sites, and other digital technologies in dating abuse.
This year, more than 60 trained volunteers have presented the program to about 3,000 teenagers. More than 50,000 students have received the program since its inception, in 1992.
In addition to working directly with kids in schools, TDA runs a program for parent and community groups -- such as PTAs, churches, and synagogues – called Teen Dating: the Untold Story.
For information about how to have a TDA presentation in your school or for your parent group, or if you are interested in becoming a TDA volunteer, please call the NCJW office at 973.740.0588. Visit http://www.centerforwomenNJ.org/teen_dating_abuse.html for additional information.
