BRYAN, Texas — February is National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month. The public can learn ways on how to keep people safe and how to know the signs of teen dating violence through education and local resources.
“A lot of times, thing co-occur like stalking or teen dating violence or things like that so we want to make sure people are aware and know how to prevent those things and looking for green flags and red flags,” said Kayla Duncan, Director of Communications and Outreach, SARC.
Duncan says red flags can be disguised in relationships as affection and persistence.
“That can be someone always wanting to know your location, constantly calling or texting you and getting upset when you don’t respond to them immediately, or it could be maybe showing up to a place where they weren’t invited to see what you were doing, or calling your friends when they can’t call you directly to ask what you’re up to,” Duncan said.
Alison Pourteau works with Scotty’s House in Bryan.
The non-profit child advocacy center provides victims of child abuse with safety, justice, and healing.
“Our counselors work on actually helping the children to process the trauma that they’ve been through, help them move forward ideally with minimal effects from that so we see a lot of kids with PTSD symptoms, with anxiety, depression, things like that,” said Alison Pourteau, Director of Clinical Services, Scotty’s House.
Abuse also affects parents, teachers, and friends.
“We also see non-offending parents and siblings, so when abuse occurs, it’s not just the child that was victimized, it’s the entire family experiences the effects of that,” Pourteau said.
According to the CDC, about one in nine females and one in 36 male high school students report having experienced sexual dating violence in the last year.
“It’s very tempting for a lot of people to just want to forget that this happened and move on and act like nothing ever happened and act like everything is fine and normal, but the effects of abuse go on for many years after, in particular if it has not been dealt with,” Pourteau said.
Duncan emphasizes thgat having safe, respectful, and healthy relationships is possible.
“Someone who asks your opinion and has open communications when they have a problem, they don’t shut down, or if they are having a shut down, they let you know so they can process that and y’all can come back together as a team,” Duncan said.
“Even if a child doesn’t seem like they are having a lot of initial effects, again, those effects will come out later in life in other very unhealthy coping styles, and so the sooner we can work with a child after abuse has occurred, the better chance that they are going to be able to move on to have a healthy and productive life,” Pourteau said.
The CDC also states one in 11 females and about one in 15 male high school students report having experienced physical dating violence in the last year.