| Releases
& Statements
**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
December 11, 2007
Contact: Sarah Krauss
(212) 669-4193; (917) 541-0936
Release #: 073-2007
Gotbaum Blasts DOE on Failure to Act on Teen Dating Violence
– Despite small successes, DOE has failed to take basic steps –
MANHATTAN - Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum today blasted the Department of Education for its failure to implement a series of steps to curb teen dating violence. In 2005, Gotbaum released a report, Acting Like Adults: Teenagers and Dating Violence http://www.pubadvocate.nyc.gov/policy/documents/TeenageDatingViolence2005.pdf , which focused on the city’s role in educating adolescents about the risks of dating violence. The report also offered several recommendations to help protect teens from dating violence, including:
-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.
And yet, after more than two years, the DOE has failed to implement any of these common sense recommendations.
In the letter to Chancellor Joel Klein, Public Advocate Gotbaum said, “Two years have passed, and yet the DOE has failed to implement these recommendations. The DOHMH report indicates that, between 1999 and 2005, the number of New York City youth reporting that they had been the subject of physical dating violence rose from 6.5 percent to 10 percent. In addition, the number of youth reporting that they had been raped increased from 5.6 percent in 2001 to 7.5 percent in 2005. The actual number of teens who experience dating violence and rape is likely to be even higher than reported. These young people need services and support. I urge you to take the necessary steps to actively address the growing problem of teen dating violence.”
A full copy of the letter is available below.
###
December 11, 2007
Chancellor Joel I. Klein
NYC Department of Education
52 Chambers Street
New York, New York 10007
Via Facsimile and U.S. Mail
Dear Chancellor Klein:
I am disturbed by a recent Department of Health and Mental Hygiene report, Teen Safety in New York City, which shows that New York City youth reported an increase in physical dating violence and rape between 1999 and 2005. This data sheds new light on a problem my office examined in a July 2005 report Acting Like Adults: Teenagers and Dating Violence, which focuses on the city’s role in educating adolescents about the risks of dating violence. The report also offers several recommendations to help protect teens from dating violence.
Two years have passed, and yet the DOE has failed to implement these recommendations. I am encouraged by the New York City Healthy Relationship Training Academy, organized by the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence and the Department of Youth and Community Development, which conducts workshops to educate teens about dating violence. But the program has only reached a small number of the more than 500,000 junior high and high school students in the public school system. More needs to be done, specifically by the Department of Education.
In light of the new DOHMH report, I urge you once again to take the following actions:
• Post the city’s Domestic Violence Hotline and Youthline telephone numbers in all appropriate locations in all junior high and high schools. Locations should include places students are most likely to read the posting, such as bathrooms and locker rooms. Postings should also include an informational checklist or warning signs of abusive behavior.
• Expand 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.
• Designate a coordinator to combat student dating violence. The position would include responsibility for tracking incidents of teen dating violence, tracking enforcement of orders of protection in schools, and implementing a uniform citywide response to student dating violence.
• Modify 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.
• Implement a uniform policy in schools for handling teen relationship abuse. A uniform school policy should include safety planning with the victim, class and lunch period schedule changes, suspensions or transfers, dissemination of information to teachers and security personnel, counseling for the victim and perpetrator, locker assignment changes, letters to the perpetrator’s parents or guardians, and staggered school departure times for the victim and batterer.
The DOHMH report indicates that, between 1999 and 2005, the number of New York City youth reporting that they had been the subject of physical dating violence rose from 6.5 percent to 10 percent. In addition, the number of youth reporting that they had been raped increased from 5.6 percent in 2001 to 7.5 percent in 2005. The actual number of teens who experience dating violence and rape is likely to be even higher than reported. These young people need services and support. I urge you to take the necessary steps to actively address the growing problem of teen dating violence.
Sincerely,
Betsy Gotbaum
Cc Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden
###
|
