RCCS, DV Shelter combine at Informed Teens meeting

May 13, 2010

MANSFIELD -- "Choose Your Partner Carefully" was the message Richland County Children Services and The Domestic Violence Shelter delivered Tuesday to a gathering of the CACY Informed Teens meeting at the county fairgrounds.

Heather Swanson, intake supervisor for RCCS, and Rebecca Getson, domestic violence advocate for The Shelter, were the primary presenters, joined by Carl Hunnell, communications supervisor for Children Services.

The audience consisted of nearly 300 high school and junior high school student leaders from several Richland County school districts.

"It's a message we have pushing out into the community to people of all ages since February," Hunnell said. "We especially want to deliver this important message to young people, those who are dating and making partner choices, as well as those about to enter those crucial years of life."

(Click here for more information on the "Choose Your Partner Carefully" campaign.)

About one-third of the 2,748 investigations into child abuse and neglect done by Children Services in 2009 involved non-related adults as the primary perpetrators, Hunnell said.

Getson had one third of the students in each of two sessions stand up, using that as a graphic display to illustrate clearly the number of cases presenters were speaking about.

"If we could get the parents in these cases to make better choices on who they involve in the life of their children, we could go a long way toward preventing child abuse before it starts," Hunnell said.

Swanson described recent abuse cases to the students involving non-related adult perpetrators, including a girlfriend punching her boyfriend\'s 3-year-old daughter in the face, blackening her eye and chipping her teeth.

"When she was told she had chipped the child's tooth, she said, 'I am not surprised. I hit her pretty hard," Swanson said

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