Schools offer more education on teen dating violence

February marks National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month, which many schools are celebrating by providing more education on this behavior to students. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines this as the physical, sexual or psychological/emotional violence within a dating relationship.

Recently, Idaho State Senator Mike Crapo visited an eighth-grade class in Washington, D.C. to talk about the issue of teen dating violence.

"They do not have to accept an abusive relationship and they do not have to tolerate being in an abusive relationship, that there is help," Crapo, told the news source.

Furthermore, a young woman named Laura Hampikian shared her story of how she was in an emotionally abusive relationship when she was 14 years old. She told the news source that her boyfriend at the time used threats of committing suicide or cutting himself to manipulate and control her.

She said she lost friends and became disconnected from her family because her boyfriend forced her to talk with him until 3 a.m. every day.

Programs for troubled teens can offer individual therapy to those who are involved in teen dating violence. According to the CDC, nearly 25 percent of adolescents report verbal, physical, emotional or sexual abuse from a dating partner each year.