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**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
January 22, 2009
Contact: Sarah Krauss
(212) 669-4193; (917) 541-0936
Release #: 02-2009
Gotbaum to DOE: Don’t Wait for a Tragedy – Act Now to Curb Teen Dating Violence
MANHATTAN - Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum criticized the Department of Education (DOE) for its failure to implement steps to curb teen dating violence. In June 2008, as a result of the increase in teens experiencing dating violence between 1999 and 2005, New York State expanded its domestic violence law to allow victims, including teenagers in dating relationships, to obtain a restraining order against an abuser in family court rather than going through the criminal justice system.
Public Advocate Gotbaum said, “We are glad to see that teenagers in dating relationships are now including in a domestic violence law so that they can obtain restraining orders; but we need to do more at the school level to protect our teens. For almost four years now I have been calling on the DOE to examine this issue and implement changes. Most important: change the school transfer policy so that abusers, not victims of abuse, are the ones required to change schools.”
Stephanie Nilva, Executive Director of Day One, which provides preventive workshops on domestic violence in the New York City Schools said, “We are pleased about changes made in 2008 to Department of Education regulations that now define relationship abuse and indicate appropriate responses to the problem. To make the greatest impact on reducing teen dating violence, however, these regulations and Day One’s work in schools should be supplemented by a DOE policy requiring mandatory education of youth and thorough training for school personnel. Let’s not wait for a tragedy to affect a New York City teenager before taking steps to protect young victims.”
In 2005, Gotbaum released a report, Acting Like Adults: Teenagers and Dating Violence, which focused on the city’s role in educating adolescents about the risks of dating violence and offered recommendations to help protect teens.
In December, 2007, following a Department of Health and Mental Hygiene report which showed that New York City youth reported an increase in physical dating violence and rape between 1999 and 2005, Public Advocate Gotbaum sent a letter to Chancellor Joel Klein calling on the DOE to take specific actions to do more to protect teens.
Public Advocate Gotbaum is again calling on the DOE to implement common-sense reforms to protect teens from dating violence which include:
- Modifying the school transfer policy to require and simplify the transfer of batterers from schools they attend with their victims. Currently, the DOE transfer policy requires the victim to transfer schools. Although the DOE transfer policy should not violate a batterer’s due process rights, a transfer policy should allow for a transfer when violent acts occur on- or off- campus.
- Posting the city’s Domestic Violence Hotline and Youthline telephone numbers in all appropriate locations in all junior high and high schools;
- Expanding the Relationship Abuse Prevention Program or otherwise ensure that domestic violence advocates are able to come into junior high and high schools to educate students about relationship abuse; and
- Designating a coordinator to combat student dating violence.
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