Rhode Island And Texas: The Teen Dating Violence Duo With Public Education Mandates

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Public schools are a place where all children should be given a free and appropriate education that will not only teach them the core concepts of education but are also the medium in which they learn other topics that help them in life.

They are the prime location to teach a variety of subjects in that they are already set up in a way that lends to educating the masses. For example, anti-drug programs use schools, with community officials hosting assemblies designed to educate children during the school day about the harmful effects of drug use. Fire prevention week is also seen across the nation in public school systems, using the brick and mortar environments to teach children about safety and prevention as well as how to respond in an emergency. Some schools even go as far as reaching out to teach anti-bullying programs to their students in light of the bullying and harassment problems that are leading young children to take drastic measures.

Although it was truly the Lone Star State with regards to legislature that required a policy on Teen Dating Violence, Texas has been joined in the ranks of prevention by a small state with a giant purpose. Rhode Island is now the only other state in the nation that has a mandate but they have taken it a step further.

According to an article in Thefacts.com that explains Rhode Island's Lindsay Ann Burke Act, the education aspect is not just policy but it is actual teaching:

...the Rhode Island measure goes further by requiring the topic be incorporated annually into the curriculum for students in seventh through 12th grade.

National surveys have found that for most students, middle school is when the dating ritual typically begins. Combine that with the already primed setting for education and you have the perfect route for prevention.

Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch said in the article that he receives around 5,000 domestic violence cases every year. And the problems don't begin as adults, or even when they go out on that very first date. The problem with dating violence and domestic violence, often termed as interpersonal violence, is that it is a pattern of learned behaviours that typically come from what a child witnesses as they grow and develop.

The Rhode Island law was passed in light of Lindsay Ann Burke, a young woman who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Gerardo Martinez. Lindsay was found in 2005 in a bathtub at Martinez's home with her throat slashed and with multiple stab wounds to the head and chest. Lindsay had dated him for two years and endured a relationship of violence. When she ended the relationship and tried to move on, he took her life. He was convicted in 2007 of murder and sentenced to life without parole.

Dating violence is often overlooked because the alleged perpetrators are typically not committing the acts of violence or abuse in front of others. In fact, only those who are close to the victims and even the abusers are able to identify certain warning signs that are consistent with abuse in dating relationships. Educating students on healthy relationships, warning signs and resources PRIOR to getting involved in relationships can mean the difference between life and death.

Across the country, one in five high school girls are abused either physically or sexually by a dating partner and one in three teens experience some type of teen dating violence.

Now with Texas and Rhode Island working together from opposite ends of the country as one of the biggest and one of the smallest states making it mandatory for schools to provide a policy on dealing with Teen Dating Violence, lets hope that other states along the spectrum follow suit.