Delbarton Students Take a Stand Against Teen Dating Violence
Published on March 01, 2018
There's No Excuse for Abuse was the winning campaign slogan for February's Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month in Morris County.
Created by student leaders from the Delbarton School, located in Morris Township, the slogan was selected by professionals from Marketsmith at the Teens for Healthy Relationships Leadership Conference held late last year at Randolph High School.
(JPG, 10MB) Student leaders from Delbarton School hang an awareness banner for Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month with their winning slogan. Pictured from l-r are: Patrick Ryan of Randolph, Eric Kohut of West Orange, Ryan Saik of Chatham and Elio Rodriguez, of Newark.
Seventeen high schools and 102 student leaders attended the Jersey Battered Women's Service (JBWS) sponsored sixth annual conference.
With creative support from Cedar Knolls-based marketing firm Marketsmith and a generous $1,000 contribution from the Randolph Municipal Alliance, the teen dating violence campaign is being brought to life through large bright yellow banners that are distributed to high schools throughout the county.
The banner looks wonderful, said Kevin Conn of the Delbarton School. It catches students' eyes and reminds them of the urgency of the issue. The youth conference was a great opportunity for our students to learn about this important topic, to develop their leadership, and create ways to spread the word among their peers. We are proud to hang the banner in our school.
We really enjoyed working with the students, said Larry Durst, Executive Creative Director of Marketsmith. They were very creative and came up with terrific ideas for how to promote awareness of teen dating violence. It was difficult to choose the best campaign slogan. But in the end, Delbarton was the winner.
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JBWS' vice president of community relations Regina Braham said that engaging youth leaders is very important in combatting the dating violence issue. She said teen dating violence is prevalent among adolescents but victims of violence rarely seek help from adults. Instead, they talk to their peers.
"Therefore, we need to equip adolescents with the tools to recognize it and engage youth leaders in creating a school culture that won't tolerate it, said Braham.
According to a recent research study on adolescent patients seeking healthcare, more than 15 percent of adolescents reported dating violence in the past year, almost one in five females and one in eight males.
For more information about teen dating violence and to learn about the education and counseling resources for teens and parents at JBWS, including our new Information for Parents on Teen Dating Abuse brochure, visit www.jbws.org, email anase@jbws.org or call 973-267-7520 Ext. 136.