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RESPONDING TO TEEN DATING VIOLENCE
Teen dating violence is an integral part of school violence. There are many ways to raise awareness on this widespread problem. The
following ideas are just a few of the ways your school can address potential dangers, provide training and establish relationships with
your students on teen dating violence.
Create a school protocol to build victim safety and offender accountability
• Establish clear roles and responsibilities of school staff
• Provide consistent school response
• Define the issue and outline training procedures
Develop teen outreach programs
• Assign teens to develop strategies and outline goals for preventing teen dating violence
• Create peer-to-peer groups
• Create victim support groups to help understand they are not alone
• Establish dating abuse awareness club
Create an evaluation of abuse
• Students who use health services and/or counseling programs can be given a questionnaire/screening tool to evaluate
needs/problems
• Establish support services
• Conduct confidential surveys in classroom discussions
• Ask school nurse to have dating abuse brochures/safety cards on hand for distribution (see enclosed safety cards)
Have resources available
• Display teen dating violence posters in main areas
• Have safety cards in bathrooms, lounges, etc. (see enclosed safety cards)
• Have books on topic in school library
• Participate in Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office Annual Teen Dating Violence Awareness Poster Contest
Make public service announcements on teen dating violence
• Identify the problem
• Provide statistics
• Explain where to go for help
• Refer to school resources
Make awareness of the topic a priority in education
• Encourage Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office Teen Dating Violence Awareness Poster Contest participation in your school
• Teach about teen dating violence in health class, P.E., social studies, etc.
• Use enclosed toolkit handouts in class for distribution
• Hang posters at your school or on community bulletin boards
Display teen dating violence/healthy relationship information on school website
• Provide links to resources - see website list on Teen Dating Committee/Resource handout
• Allow peer/student involvement in creation of wetsite
• Join National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline on MySpace or Facebook
• Scan enclosed flyers on school wetsite
Participate in Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month in Febru \