Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Hannah Weisberg, a junior at Gateway High School, says she felt helpless when someone close to her was hurting in an abusive dating relationship.
'Then Demi Cuccia was murdered, and that really, really hit home with me,' says Weisberg, 16, of Monroeville. She recalls the Aug. 15, 2007, stabbing death of the Gateway cheerleader by Cuccia's boyfriend, John Mullarkey, who is serving a life sentence."
3 comments:
I think a big part of this is the message to the parents. While it is important to get the message out to everyone, I think that by having more parents talk to their kids about dating and being open to their children, it could decrease this fear greatly. I know many people whose parents won't let them date... period. And while some respect their parents wishes, I know that there are a great number of kids that, instead of being honest with their parents and letting them know whats going on, they date anyway, and just hide their relationships. This is possibly the worst thing, because if something does turn in the wrong direction in their relationship, you can almost guarantee they won't be running to their unapproving parents for advice. I think that the best thing for parents of teenagers to do is to talk to their kids, lay some ground rules, but don't forbid them from dating. The forbidden fruit is always the sweetest.
This is certainly a new way to promote awareness of teen violence, and I'm not entirely sure if I quite understand why this girl believes that this is the most effective method of doing so. What teen dating and violence comes from is generally a case of parents being ignorant, or choosing to be ignorant, of what their children's lives are like outside of their homes. A play isn't going to do much unless they understand that their outdated view of the world does not encompass a generation of people that hold off dating until they're eighteen, where kisses on the first date are unheard of, and murdering someone in the name of an unrequited love is irrational.
I give her credit for trying, but really this is a much bigger issue than a charity show could ever hope to attack.
I totally disagree with Kael. I think that this is a really good way to show parents how dating has changed since their time in high school. Even the trendiest of parents can not understand texting someone you like in the middle of class in high school, simply because the technology did not exist then. I also think that this is a great way to raise awareness without beating people over the head with it. I know at my high school when they tried to hold assembles about a similar subject they were a complete failure. So having something that kids can watch and relate to being told to them by people their own age is a good idea. I think the back lash that a lot more parents in the school district will be demanding to read their kids text messages. As far as production value I think showing the texts on a projection screen is a cool idea as long as they are written in a language that everyone can understand.
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