SUMMIT TO TACKLE YOUTH RELATIONSHIP VIOLENCE
Teen Girls and Young Women Murdered—The Victims of Break-up Rage—It Must Stop!

The Office of the Fulton County District Attorney is hosting a three-day summit for teens, young adults and their parents to enlist support in our campaign to stop youth relationship violence.  By resolution of the United States Senate, February 4-8, 2008 has been designated ““National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week.” The national statistics are grim:

• One in three female teens in a dating relationship reports having feared for her safety
• 30% of teens in a dating relationship have been text-messaged 10, 20, or 30 times an hour by a partner finding out where they are, what they are doing or who they are with
• One in five teens in a serious relationship reports having been hit, slapped or pushed by a partner.
• One in four girls in a relationship reports having been pressured to go further sexually than she really wanted.

In Fulton County, these cases of murders of girls and young women received widespread media coverage in 2007:

• 22-year-old Clara Riddles—gunned down at CNN Center by her 39-year-old ex-boyfriend

• 17-year-old high school student Kendra Mason and her co-worker Damien Harris—shot to death at Greenbriar Mall by a 25-year-old man Mason dated briefly
• 15-year-old Atlanta school girl—shot to death by her 15-year-old on-again/off-again abusive boyfriend in November.

Join us and our supporting sponsors, Alston and Bird, Spelman College, The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), Morehouse College, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Coca Cola Enterprises South Metro Sales Center and East Point/College Park Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., as we work to end the violence that claims the lives of teen girls and young women in dating relationships. 

The summit takes place this week, February 8th and 9th on the campuses of Spelman College, Friday, and Georgia Tech, Saturday.  Friday’s session will feature a guest appearance by domestic violence survivor Yvette Cade, whose tragic story was featured again on The Oprah Winfrey Show in January.  She will be joined by the family members of Atlanta murder victims and the father of Jackson State University victim Latasha Norman. The Saturday session  features workshops facilitated by experts in the field of youth dating violence.  The day will be capped off by a town hall meeting on the campus of Morehouse College with civil rights legend Dr. Joseph Lowery telling men and boys to “Man Up!”  On Sunday, ministers all across metro Atlanta are being asked to deliver an anti-youth dating violence message.  (See the attached agenda for more details.)  Let’s Rap about RAP—Relationship Abuse Prevention this weekend.