Take Action At School

Educate Youth About Domestic Violence!

Think only adults or professionals can be domestic violence educators?
Think again!

As a Student

The graduates of the YWAR Violence Intervention Program at Independence High School and Wooden High School not only learned about domestic violence as students; they committed to educating others on this issue in their community.

These high school students took violence prevention into their own hands by creating new ways to talk about domestic violence to their peers. They presented their interactive workshop to 8th graders, teaching them about warning signs of unhealthy and abusive relationships.

As a Teacher

Susan Kolesar, a New Jersey health teacher, shared with Break the Cycle the way she teaches students about teen dating violence. Through creative assignments, students show what they learned and voice their feelings about domestic violence. Exercises range from writing a poem, to doing a website review for the school newspaper, to writing a research paper on dating violence.

According to Ms. Kolesar, the assignment was very well received. The students expressed themselves in a new way about an issue that many of them or their peers experience.

See the assignment or read some of the poetry students wrote in response to the assignment.