Chris Walls, a docorate of nursing student researching teen dating violence, shows a public service announcement on individual definitions of the word love to Taylor Jones, a student at the Washington Alternative school, on Friday. For their classwork each student had to write down their own definition for the word and they read each other’s out load.Fourteen-year-old Taylor Jones said she saw her mom be the victim of domestic violence and wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“Dating violence is not a good thing, and it needs to be stopped,” said the Washington Alternative School eighth-grader.
Taylor is among dozens of students at Washington Alternative helping University of Tennessee at Chattanooga doctoral student Christopher Walls and Antonio McMath, a youth specialist with the Chattanooga Career Center, develop a teen dating violence curriculum, called TRAPP. It stands for Teen Relationship Abuse Prevention Program and is expected to be implemented in three Hamilton County schools when school starts again in August.
Dr. Helen Eigenberg, chairwoman of UTC’s criminal justice department also is assisting with the curriculum.
Walls said the three schools that will pilot the curriculum have not been confirmed.