Grant To Help Propel District As Leader In Fighting Teen Violence

Thanks to a half-million dollar grant recently awarded to the Lakewood City Schools by the U.S. Department of Justice, Lakewood is set to become a national leader in the effort to prevent sexual assault, dating and domestic violence and stalking among teens and adolescents. Lakewood City Schools is one of approximately 10 districts in the nation selected to participate in this grant program.

The grant, for $511,832 over three years, is part of the Justice Dept.’s Office on Violence Against Women’s Supporting Teens through Education and Protection Program, or STEP. Lakewood City Schools’ partners in the program, the Lakewood Police Department, Cleveland Rape Crisis Center and the Domestic Violence & Child Advocacy Center (formerly the Domestic Violence Center and Bellflower Center for Prevention of Child Abuse), will join in developing and implementing  a comprehensive plan, dubbed “Ranger 360,” that will increase middle school and high school student safety by accomplishing the following:

• Establishing a coordinated community response task force to address sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking (SADDVS) by developing a comprehensive prevention and education program for community, parents, staff and students
• Providing training to school administrators, faculty, counselors, coaches, security personnel and other staff on the need and concerns of students who experience and the impact of such violence on students.
• Providing a resource person on-site at the schools for the purpose of strengthening effective prevention and intervention strategies for students experiencing such violence
• Establishing a student task force that will work on awareness campaigns.
• Establishing a parent task force to develop a parent outreach and engagement program.
• Providing educational programming designed to raise awareness of teen dating and sexual violence among students.

“We are fortunate to be able to partner with the City of Lakewood’s Police Department, providing expertise in law enforcement, and Cleveland Rape Crisis Center and Domestic Violence & Child Advocacy Center providing their comprehensive knowledge on teen dating and sexual violence and its impact on victims and families, to begin to systemically address an issue that threatens the safety of our students and therefore, impacts learning,” said Superintendent Jeffrey W. Patterson. “This push for prevention and education will help protect our community’s youth.”

The partners involved in the grant have worked together in the past to provide personnel training and classroom education for individual teacher or principal requests in Lakewood Schools, but these programs lacked a sufficient depth and did not reach all students. In a survey of high school and middle school health classes, it was found that students were lacking knowledge of very basic facts about sexual assault and dating violence. In another survey of high school personnel, staff expressed needing more knowledge of these crimes and training in how to respond.

“Domestic Violence & Child Advocacy Center has been pleased to work with the Lakewood School District providing dating violence awareness seminars to specific classes over the past several years. While these seminars are an important prevention tool, we all recognize that a more comprehensive approach is needed. This grant provides us with the resources and staffing needed to make a district-wide impact on teen dating violence,” said Linda Dooley Johanek, Chief Executive Officer of the center.

“This collaborative project has the potential to significantly reduce rates of sexual assault and dating violence amongst Lakewood teens and we are thrilled to be a project partner,” Dooley Johanek said.

The Ranger 360 program will reach nearly 1,300 middle school students and 1,800 high school students as well as more than 600 faculty and staff of Lakewood City Schools.

Some sobering statistics about sexual assault and dating violence underline the need for the type of outreach the grant will facilitate:

• Youth aged 16 to 24 are the most at risk of domestic violence of any age group.
• One in five teen girls reported physical and/or sexual dating violence.
• 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused before her/his 18th birthday
• Most rapes against teenagers are never reported to formal authorities.
• 57% of teens participating in an online survey stated that they know someone who has been abused in a dating relationship.

Said Megan O’Bryan, Chief Executive Officer of Cleveland Rape Crisis Center. “Way too many middle and high school students are being harmed, not by strangers, but by people they know, trust and even love. By talking openly about teen dating violence and sexual assault in the Lakewood schools and community, we will give students the tools to recognize abuse and the safe space to come forward and ask for help when they need it.”