Dating violence focus of 'Clothesline Project' exhibit
A powerful presentation, "The Clothesline Project," will be offered to Prospect High School students in health classes and during all lunch periods on Monday, Dec. 14.
The Clothesline Project is a visual display that calls attention to violence against women, with T-shirts designed by woman survivors of violence and their families/friends. The shirts hang side-by-side to "Break the Silence" and to bear witness to this ever-expanding societal problem.
The different colors of the shirts each signify a different tragic experience: white, for those who died through violence; yellow for those battered or assaulted; red, pink or orange for sexual assault or rape victims; blue or green for survivors of incest or child sexual assault; and purple or lavender for attacks on those for their (perceived) sexual orientation.
The project focuses on providing healing for survivors of violence, educating the public about violence, and providing solutions through individual action to prevent violence.
Prospect is presenting the Clothesline Project through Northwest Center Against Sexual Assault (Northwest CASA), a full service agency that provides free services to sexual assault survivors and their loved ones in the North and Northwest suburbs of Cook County. Northwest CASA is a governing body member of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault and has collected more than 600 shirts since 1995. High school students from the Northwest suburbs of Cook County have made most of them.
Teen dating violence runs across race, gender and socioeconomic lines. An article in the Journal of American Medical Association says girls and women 16-24 are more vulnerable to intimate partner violence than any other age group - at a rate almost triple the national average.
A 2003 study showed that about 1 in 5 high school girls reported being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner. Patterns of violence often begin in adolescence and continue into adult relationships.
Prospect's Student Services staff wants students to be aware of the risks of dating violence, which happen not only between high-profile celebrities in the news, but to women of all ages in the local community.
Parents can also play a vital role in this educational endeavor by talking to their children about dating violence. Teens need to be equipped and ready to break the silence of domestic violence.