Marjaree Mason Center hosts roundtable discussion for Teen Dating Violence Awareness month

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- High schoolhouse students, educators and adjacent lawmakers met astatine the caller Marjaree Mason Center connected Friday successful Northwest Fresno for a roundtable treatment connected Teen Dating Violence.

February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month and the nonprofit hosted the forum to connection a abstraction to students to beryllium heard astir a superior and unsafe topic.

"Everybody needs to cognize idiosyncratic cares and that they're gonna beryllium acceptable to assistance erstwhile somebody's acceptable to person a conversation," Marjaree Mason Center CEO Nicole Linder said.

Linder says there's an alarming emergence successful teen unit dating.

"On the calls to instrumentality enforcement from teen victims amusement that they're astatine a greater likelihood for carnal unit than possibly the big peers and for intersexual assault," she said.

From 2023 to 2024, the Marjaree Mason Center reports determination was a 27 percent summation successful cases of Teen Dating Violence successful Fresno County, a interest for Representative Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield).

"This is not an world conversation. Our teenagers, our young radical successful the assemblage are increasing up truly fast, particularly with societal media," Fong says.

He says offering assistance to teen victims should beryllium a assemblage effort.

From instrumentality enforcement to schools, helium says everyone should measurement up successful times of need.

"People are ever truthful acrophobic and fearful to get assistance and get attraction but determination are radical that attraction for you and privation to beryllium determination for you," Clovis Unified pupil Avery Means said.

Means says topics discussed were dense with emotion but she's optimistic these conversations tin assistance others who whitethorn beryllium struggling.

"I consciousness similar educating students and benignant of giving them an thought and similar explaining to them what tin spell connected successful these types of things and wherever to spell to for assistance is ace important," she said.3

The Marjaree Mason Center says inviting lawmakers to the array was important and that the tendency was to not conscionable person an unfastened speech but to besides spark alteration with authorities successful the adjacent future.

If you are the unfortunate of home abuse, oregon you cognize idiosyncratic who is, determination is assistance disposable 24/7. In Fresno County, telephone the Marjaree Mason Center astatine (559) 233-4357. In each different locations, telephone the National Domestic Violence Hotline astatine (800) 799-7233.

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