The Ohio House of Representatives is currently working on legislation to address dating violence prevention and education in the state's youth.
State Rep. Sandra Stabile Harwood (D-Niles) proposed H.B. 19, also known as Tina's Law, which requires a dating violence education component included in statewide health curriculum.
The bill also said Ohio schools will be required to develop a policy to handle dating violence occurrences on school property.
The bill was introduced to Ohio congress Feb. 18 and is waiting for a report from the Education subcommittee.
Harwood, who is also the state director for the National Foundation for Women Legislators, said she proposed the bill as a part of a nationwide movement of which the Foundation is involved.
Harwood said the bill was modeled after a bill in Rhode Island-the Lindsay Ann Burke Act-which went into effect in Rhode Island schools in 2008. Similar bills have passed in eight other states including Massachusetts, Texas and California.
"It's an issue that we, as a foundation, are working on," Harwood said.
According to Talawanda School District Assistant Superintendent Kelly Spivey, Talawanda's current health
curriculum contains issues that deal with violence, and the curriculum is up for revision for the 2009-10 school year.
"(The) H.B. 19 requirement can be easily implemented within the new health curriculum adoption process," Spivey said via email.
Harwood's legislative assistant, Katherine Kuck, said dating violence education is important because it is an issue related to all sexes, not only a women, and is often related to past family problems.
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"Often, the family could have a history of (violence)," Kuck said. "It's good for schools to intercede and give them a voice."
Kuck said a number of families who have been affected by dating violence have come out in support of the bill and some plan to testify in hearings to support its passage.
One couple that will testify is Jim and Elsa Croucher, the parents of Tina Croucher, for whom the bill was named.
Tina Croucher was killed by an ex-boyfriend days before Christmas 1992 when she was 18 years old. In response to the murder, the Crouchers established Citizens Against Domestic Violence, an organization committed to promote education and awareness of dating violence to prevent similar situations for other families.
"Our ultimate goal is to educate young people about the perils of dating violence," Elsa Croucher said. "At Tina's visitation, we had a number of parents who told us that they had experienced problems with their daughters whose boyfriends wanted to control and abuse them. We learned through our tragedy that we were not alone with these problems."
Harwood said she also believes Tina's Law will be helpful in ending trends of dating violence.
"(The bill will) hopefully break the cycle of destructive relationships that begin early on and last a lifetime," Harwood said.
The Crouchers said they support the bill because they believe it will make a difference for Ohio's youth.
"Teenagers do not understand what dating violence is or how to recognize the signs that lead up to ultimate abuse or death," Elsa Croucher said. "This is why it is so important to have curriculum in the schools for dating violence just as there is curriculum for drugs."
Rep. Edna Brown (D-Toledo) also proposed H.B. 10 the same week Harwood proposed her bill in an effort to allow minors to file for a protection order. The bill will also allow any person over the age of 18 to file a protection order on behalf of a child under 18 at their request. H.B. 10 is currently waiting for a report from the Civil and Commercial Law subcommittee.
According to Elsa Croucher, there are currently no laws that allow such action.
"Of course we have no current protection order for teenagers and that is very badly needed to protect our dating couples," Croucher said.
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