The Sydney Morning Herald published the following article: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/confronting-campaigns-cast-light-on-hidden-victims-of-household-violence-20150418-1mmls2.html telling the story of a 14 year old girl who "wants the NSW government to know that if domestic violence had been better addressed in school, she would have recognised that what was happening inside her own home was not normal"
It is clear that there is much responsibility on schools to engage with students, yet the Curriculum is already crowded, so how does this happen? It is not feasible to add to the burdened curriculum more "good" things. There is already overlap in other areas (not this instance) of parenting responsibilities and expectations on schools for example sex education.
Organisations run awareness campaigns such as the White Ribbon day (http://www.whiteribbon.org.au/schools) which is focused particularly on violence against women. It is up to individual schools and usually prefects or student representation councils to find these organisations, make contact with them and make arrangements.
Whilst this allows individual schools to choose these campaigns that would be more applicable to their demographics the does not provide adequeate coverage. Even schools pastoral care programs are insufficiently equipped to deal with all these awareness campaigns.
We need a coordinated approach in the state between private and public schools to expose students to these various organisations. Why couldn't we focus as a state on several of these each year to give extra publicity?
Some other campaigns and charities include:
- Pink ribbon day for breast cancer
- Beyond Blue for depression
- Cervical cancer
- Prostate Cancer
- National child protection week
If you are suffering from domestic violence - contact the helpline:
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, you can ring the Domestic Violence Line for help on 1800 656 463
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