[Senate Hearing 112-97]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 112-97
PREVENTING TEEN VIOLENCE: STRATEGIES FOR PROTECTING TEENS FROM DATING
VIOLENCE AND BULLYING
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME AND TERRORISM
of the
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
JUNE 3, 2011
__________
Pawtucket, Rhode Island
__________
Serial No. J-112-25
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
68-183 WASHINGTON : 2011
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing
Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; DC
area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC
20402-0001
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont, Chairman
HERB KOHL, Wisconsin CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa
DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah
CHUCK SCHUMER, New York JON KYL, Arizona
DICK DURBIN, Illinois JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina
AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota JOHN CORNYN, Texas
AL FRANKEN, Minnesota MICHAEL S. LEE, Utah
CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
Bruce A. Cohen, Chief Counsel and Staff Director
Kolan Davis, Republican Chief Counsel and Staff Director
------
Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island, Chairman
HERB KOHL, Wisconsin JON KYL, Arizona
DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah
DICK DURBIN, Illinois JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama
AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina
CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware
Stephen Lilley, Democratic Chief Counsel
Stephen Higgins, Republican Chief Counsel
C O N T E N T S
----------
STATEMENTS OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Page
Whitehouse, Sheldon, a U.S. Senator from the State of Rhode
Island......................................................... 1
WITNESSES
Burke, Ann, President, Lindsay Ann Burke Memorial Fund, North
Kingstown, Rhode Island........................................ 3
Debare, Deborah, Executive Director, Rhode Island Coalition
Against Domestic Violence, Warwick, Rhode Island............... 6
Reilly, Kate, Director, Start Strong, Sojourner House,
Providence, Rhode Island....................................... 8
Zakarin, Ruth, Executive Director, Katie Brown Educational
Program, Fall River, Massachusetts............................. 10
SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD
Burke, Ann, President, Lindsay Ann Burke Memorial Fund, North
Kingstown, Rhode Island, statement............................. 21
Debare, Deborah, Executive Director, Rhode Island Coalition
Against Domestic Violence, Warwick, Rhode Island, statement.... 27
Reilly, Kate, Director, Start Strong, Sojourner House,
Providence, Rhode Island, statement............................ 38
Zakarin, Ruth, Executive Director, Katie Brown Educational
Program, Fall River, Massachusetts, statement.................. 41
ADDITIONAL SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD
Submissions for the record not printed due to voluminous nature,
previously printed by an agency of the Federal Government, or
other criteria determined by the Committee:
Library of Congress, Teen Dating Violence: An Annotated
Bibliography, Priscilla Offenhauer, Researcher, and Alice
Buchalter, Project Manager, a Report Prepared by the Federal
Research Division, Library of Congress under an Interagency
Agreement with the Violence and Victimization Research
Division, National Institute of Justice, April 2011
PREVENTING TEEN VIOLENCE: STRATEGIES FOR PROTECTING TEENS FROM DATING
VIOLENCE AND BULLYING
----------
FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 2011
U.S. Senate,
Committee on the Judiciary,
Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 1:40 p.m.,
William E. Tolman Senior High School, 150 Exchange Street,
Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Hon. Sheldon Whitehouse, Chairman of
the Subcommittee, presiding.
Present: Senator Whitehouse.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, A U.S. SENATOR
FROM THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND, CHAIRMAN OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE
Senator Whitehouse. I want to thank you, Principal Silva.
[Applause.]
Senator Whitehouse. And I want to thank the administration
and the teachers and the students of Tolman High for having us
here this afternoon.
We have some significant guests who are with us and I
wanted to recognize them. I believe that Attorney General
Kilmartin will be coming, but in the meantime, the Department
of Attorney General is represented here by the Deputy Attorney
General, my former deputy when I was attorney general, Jerry
Coyne. So please welcome Jerry.
[Applause.]
Senator Whitehouse. We have Senator Bea Lanzi, who is the
sponsor of the Lindsay Ann Burke Act, which passed in Rhode
Island and which we will hear more about during the testimony.
She is also a member of the State Cyber-Bullying Task Force
that is run by Senator John Tassoni.
Representative Eileen Naughton will be joining us. She is
the House sponsor of the Lindsay Ann Burke Act. She is
currently working with our State Department of Health on
children and teen issues, including dating violence.
Representative Grace Diaz is here, as well. And if you
could give a hand for our legislative leaders who are here with
us.
[Applause.]
Senator Whitehouse. I am told that the mayor will be here,
but he is not here at the moment. In the meantime, he is
represented by our new police chief here in Pawtucket, Paul
King.
Chief King, thank you very much for being here.
[Applause.]
Senator Whitehouse. And from the school side of things, we
have my friend, Ray Spooner, the Chairman of the Pawtucket
School Committee, and, of course, your principal, Fred Silva.
[Applause.]
Senator Whitehouse. So this afternoon's field hearing of
the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime and
Terrorism, which I am the Chairman of, considers a topic that
is extremely important to Rhode Island families--preventing
teen violence, strategies for protecting teens from dating
violence and from bullying.
For the students in the audience, a hearing, a Senate
hearing like this is a formal opportunity for Congress to learn
more about an issue. The testimony of our witnesses today
becomes part of our Nation's official legislative record and it
provides valuable guidance to Congress as we work on our
Nation's laws.
Today's hearing is an important step towards learning how
to better protect our Nation's teens from violence.
Our setting provides a very appropriate forum for studying
and learning about effective tools to reduce dating violence
and bullying.
These are extremely important topics. According to the
Center for Disease Control, one in 10 teens reports being hit
or physically hurt on purpose by a boyfriend or girlfriend at
least once in the past year.
Teen violence can take other forms, as well. Each year, one
in every four adolescents reports verbal, physical, emotional
or sexual abuse from a dating partner.
As we will hear from our witnesses and as many in the
audience know, these are not mere statistics. Every victim is
someone's child or sibling, someone's friend or classmate.
There is a close relationship between dating violence and
bullying. Those who bully their classmates in elementary and
middle school may be more likely to become violent when they
enter relationships. What can seem to be simple bullying or
name-calling early in a relationship can escalate to more
serious violence, including assault.
New technologies, such as smart phones and social
networking sites, also have created new avenues for dating
violence and bullying. Abusive messages posted on a Website can
quickly reach a broad audience and be difficult to get rid of.
Rhode Island has been at the forefront of efforts to
prevent and respond to teen dating violence. Through the hard
work of organizations, including the Rhode Island Coalition
Against Domestic Violence, the Lindsay Ann Burke Foundation,
the Katie Brown Educational Program, and the Safe Start Program
at the Sojourner House, as well as the close cooperation of law
enforcement officers, teachers, parents and community members,
Rhode Islanders have led the Nation in developing innovative
programs to promote strong and safe relationships. And Rhode
Island's Lindsay Ann Burke Act has become a model to other
states in addressing teen violence.
We are joined today by a talented and accomplished group of
leaders from our State who will share their experience and
wisdom on this important topic.
I believe this afternoon's hearing will be particularly
important as Congress turns to reauthorizing the Violence
Against Women Act later this year. That law has done so much to
protect victims of violence in Rhode Island and across the
country. We will also be, I hope, taking up a new education
bill in the Health Committee, which may provide, also, a
vehicle for considering legislation in this area.
I look forward to working with my Republican and Democratic
colleagues to make sure that Rhode Island's voice is heard as
Congress works to protect families and prevent teen violence.
I see that Mayor Grebien has arrived. You were recognized
earlier before you got here, Don, and the kids all cheered for
Paul King in your stead. But perhaps if you would stand up,
they would give you a cheer, as well.
[Applause.]
Senator Whitehouse. So, now, one of the things that we do
in hearings in Congress is we have the witness sworn. You have
all seen the photographs of witnesses before Congress with
their hands up being sworn in. And so we will do that here, as
well. And I will ask the witnesses to stand and raise your
right hand.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Senator Whitehouse. Please be seated. We have some
wonderful witnesses here and I will introduce each of them as
they give their testimony, and then we will save the end for
questions and general discussion.
Ann Burke is a registered nurse, with a master's degree in
health education, and a recently retired health teacher who
taught middle school students in Rhode Island for 25 years.
After the 2005 murder of her daughter, Lindsay, a victim of
dating violence, she founded the Lindsay Ann Burke Memorial
Fund, whose mission is to support the prevention of dating and
domestic violence through education.
In 2009, we welcomed Ms. Burke to Washington to testify
before the full Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing on the
continued importance of the Violence Against Women Act, and it
is a great privilege to hear from her today.
Ms. Burke, please proceed.
STATEMENT OF ANN BURKE, PRESIDENT, LINDSAY ANN BURKE MEMORIAL
FUND, NORTH KINGSTOWN, RHODE ISLAND
Ms. Burke. Chairman Whitehouse, thank you for the
opportunity to testify today on why Congress needs to
prioritize teen dating violence prevention in the
reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
I speak to you today as a mother, an advocate, and retired
teacher. It has been almost 6 years since my daughter, Lindsay,
was brutally tortured and murdered by her ex-boyfriend. We
cannot change the past, but we can help shape and determine the
future. And so I am proud that we have created a positive
legacy in honor of Lindsay.
In 2007, Rhode Island became the first state to pass a
comprehensive teen dating violence law. Now, at least 14 states
have followed the example of the Lindsay Ann Burke Act and
passed laws to support education on teen dating violence.
Many times, states pass laws after other parents experience
my same nightmare. I know many of these parents from across our
Nation. We have a parent e-mail support group, a group no one
wants to belong to. And today, I speak for them, as well as
myself.
Not only do we live with the tremendous loss of our
daughters and sons, but we have all been traumatized by this
horrendous manner in which many of our children were tortured
and murdered. Suffice it to say that the details of dating
violence murders are beyond any sense of decency and morality.
In Rhode Island, the attention given to this subject has
made a difference. Since the passage of the Lindsay Ann Burke
Act, physical teen dating violence rates have decreased from 14
percent in 2007 to 10 percent in 2009. Just as importantly, the
law created awareness on the severity of the issue among school
personnel. Now, teachers are more receptive to teaching the
topic of healthy relationships in health class.
Beyond the statistics, I'd like to share some real life
success stories. One of my former students wrote me a two-page
letter about the abusive relationship she found herself in. The
last paragraph reads: ``So I wrote this letter because I'll
always wonder how long my initial relationship with that boy
would have lasted if I hadn't had your voice in my head warning
me to get out quickly. I think that if you had never taught me
all of the warning signs of an abusive relationship, I would
have strived to be a better girlfriend and I would have let him
control me, because I wouldn't have known any better. I had
never had a real boyfriend before. So how would I know the
difference? Anything could have happened last year. Thank you
for teaching me those lessons.''
Another health teacher received a letter from a former
student, who wrote: ``Last year in health class we learned
about healthy relationships. I listened. I'm glad I did,
because over the summer, I realized that my boyfriend was
starting to become abusive. He would call me 30 times a day,
leaving me voice mails of him screaming at the top of his
lungs.
One day I couldn't hang out and he punched a wall and
threatened to do the same to me. If I hadn't taken your health
class, I would definitely still be with him.
So thank you for teaching us about relationships. It really
does matter. People don't think it happens in our school. It
does.''
And yet another health teacher told me that after he
finished teaching his unit on dating violence, one student
walked up to him after class, pulled up her shirt sleeve,
exposing several bruises, and said, ``This is what my boyfriend
did to me.''
There is no silver bullet, single message, intervention or
campaign that has been demonstrated to prevent teen dating
violence. Success will require a comprehensive approach. But on
a positive note, we know that prevention works.
Prevention research tells us we need to support education
programs starting in middle school that do not simply talk
about the warning signs of dating abuse, but initiate
conversations about healthy relationships. We need to educate
and engage those who influence teens, including parents,
teachers, coaches, older youth and others.
We need to meet youth where they are in person, but just as
importantly, online through social marketing campaigns and
tools, and policies need to be adopted to support this
programming.
Why is teen dating violence prevention an issue for the
Violence Against Women Act and this committee? Last year, as a
country, we spent more than $400 million for the Department of
Justice VAWA programs to combat the serious crimes of domestic
violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. We need
to invest in preventing teen dating violence to stop these
adult crimes.
As a mother, I can still remember the deep pain in my heart
5 years ago when I first learned that dating violence is a
preventable health problem.
My hope is that the reauthorization of the Violence Against
Women Act continues to support and expand services for teen
victims, but also include the focus on the prevention and early
intervention of teen dating violence.
By involving the whole community, we will recognize that
teen violence is a real and serious issue that can be
prevented.
And I'd like to share with you, Senator, an e-mail I
received just yesterday which I think is most appropriate in
supporting our prevention efforts.
It reads: ``Mrs. Burke, on behalf of the West Warwick
Public School Department, as well as personally, I want to
thank you and commend you for your continued work in the battle
against teen dating violence.
Unfortunately, we find ourselves talking to our students
much more about this than we would like to. However, the work
you've done and the resources you provide have been powerful in
sending the message to our students about what dating violence
is, that it's not OK, and how to get help.
We have many success stories of students getting out of
destructive relationships, and I can honestly say your work
played an integral part. Thank you again. Karen Tarasevich,
Principal, West Warwick High School.''
[Applause.]
[The prepared testimony of Ms. Burke appears as a
submission for the record.]
Senator Whitehouse. Thank you, Ann.
It is really extraordinary what you have accomplished. You
took the worst nightmare that every parent dreads more than
anything else and you turned the terrible energy of that into
such a powerful force for good. And as we have said already,
the leadership that you have shown is now being echoed around
the country in many, many other states and we look forward to
working with you on this.
But I just wanted to add a particular word of how immensely
proud I am of what you have accomplished out of this tragedy.
Ms. Burke. Thank you, Senator. I appreciate that.
Senator Whitehouse. Our next witness is Deborah DeBare, who
I have worked with for many, many years as the executive
director of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic
Violence.
Previously, Ms. DeBare served for 5 years as the executive
director of the Domestic Violence Resource Center of South
County, and she was the policy and information associate for
the Rhode Island Division of Mental Health and Community
Services.
She received her master's degree from the Heller School at
Brandeis University and a BA from Brown University. And it is a
pleasure to have her testimony today.
Please, Deb, proceed.
STATEMENT OF DEBORAH DEBARE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, RHODE ISLAND
COALITION AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, WARWICK, RHODE ISLAND
Ms. DeBare. Thank you. Chairman Whitehouse, thank you very
much for the opportunity to discuss the prevalence of dating
violence and domestic abuse with you today.
Recognizing the extent of the problem is the first step in
preventing future abuse. The Rhode Island Coalition Against
Domestic Violence is a statewide association of six member
agencies and a task force of survivors, SOAR, dedicated to
ending domestic violence in our state.
As executive director of the coalition, I'm here today to
discuss the extent of domestic violence and dating violence,
its impact on children and youth, and the critical importance
of primary prevention programming.
In the United States, the crisis of domestic violence has
reached epidemic proportions. Families from all income
brackets, educational levels, and racial and ethnic origins
feel its effects. On average, more than three women a day are
murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in the United States,
and women experience over two million injuries from intimate
partner violence every year.
Rhode Island is no exception to the national norm. In 2010,
Rhode Island's six domestic violence agencies provided a
comprehensive array of services to over 10,400 victims of
domestic violence and responded to over 15,000 crisis calls.
The impact of domestic violence on children who witness
abuse has only recently been recognized. Growing up in a
violent home can affect every aspect of a child's life, growth
and development, and lead to higher risks of repeating the
cycle of abuse.
In spite of this, we know that when properly identified and
addressed, the effects of domestic violence on children can be
greatly mitigated.
Teen dating violence is also more prevalent in the United
States than people realize. Approximately one in three
adolescent girls in the United States is a victim of physical,
emotional or verbal abuse from a dating partner, a figure which
far exceeds victimization rates for other types of violence
affecting youth.
In Rhode Island, an estimated 11 percent of high school
students stay that they have been hit, slapped, or otherwise
hurt physically by a girlfriend or boyfriend on purpose. Ten
percent of Rhode Island high school students say that they have
been forced to have sex when they did not want to, compared to
8 percent nationally.
The domestic violence movement has spent the past 30 years
building up its defensive line, you could say, in the struggle
to end violence against women. We have scored a lot of points
and won a lot of games through the passage of the Violence
Against Women Act, mandatory arrest laws, and the development
of safe homes and support services.
But in order to win that championship game, we need to
build our offensive line, as well. We need to engage
communities in primary prevention.
Rhode Island has been a leader in the prevention of
domestic violence and dating violence, as we have put resources
into working to change public attitudes about the issue for
over 10 years.
Our very first public awareness campaign focused on
bystanders, urging people to change their attitude about
domestic violence, to stop thinking about it as a private
matter. Since then, we've been fortunate to have been one of
the first 14 states funded through the Centers for Disease
Control, through the DELTA program, to develop a statewide
prevention plan for domestic violence.
The Violence Against Women Act has unquestionably improved
the national response to domestic and sexual violence. Since
VAWA passed in 1994, states have passed more than 660 laws to
combat domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and
stalking. However, in addition to saving and rebuilding lives,
VAWA has actually saved taxpayers $14.8 million in net averted
social costs in the first 6 years alone.
VAWA was not only the right thing to do, it has also proven
to be fiscally sound legislation. Due to the overwhelming
success of VAWA-funded programs, more and more victims are
coming forward for help each year. However, this driving demand
for services without a concurrent increase in funding means
that many desperate victims are turned away from live-saving
services. In just 1 day, there were over 9,000 requests for
service unable to be met by domestic violence agencies around
the country.
The Violence Against Women Act is working, but the job is
not done. Although VAWA has done much to create systems that
help victims and survivors, much more is needed. We must
strengthen VAWA so that it can work for all victims of domestic
and sexual violence. Whether they live in rural or urban areas,
whether they are children or elderly victims, whether they
speak English or another language, every victim deserves a
chance to live a peace-filled life.
Congress has a unique opportunity to make a difference in
the lives of so many by reauthorizing the Violence Against
Women Act in 2011 with key and (inaudible) improvements.
Thank you, Senator Whitehouse, for all you have done, for
your leadership, and for all I know you will continue to do to
help victims of domestic and dating violence. And, again, thank
you very much for the opportunity to share some comments with
you.
[Applause.]
[The prepared testimony of Ms. DeBare appears as a
submission for the record.]
Senator Whitehouse. Thank you, Deb. And thank you for your
many years of dedicated work in this area.
Our next witness is Kate Reilly. Kate directs Start Strong
Rhode Island, a program based at the Sojourner House in
Providence, which aims to curb the epidemic of teen dating and
digital abuse.
At Start Strong, Ms. Reilly is leading the development of a
videogame and a social networking site that will help teens
learn about the difference between healthy and unhealthy
relationships.
Ms. Reilly has a master's degree in epidemiology from the
Boston University School of Public Health and a bachelor's
degree from New College of Florida.
We welcome her for her testimony. Please proceed.
STATEMENT OF KATE REILLY, DIRECTOR, START STRONG, SOJOURNER
HOUSE, PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
Ms. Reilly. Thank you, Chairman Whitehouse, for the
invitation to testify on a program aimed at preventing teen
dating violence. It is Start Strong, building healthy teen
relationships.
I direct that program, and it's a partnership led by
Sojourner House, one of six domestic violence member agencies
of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence. We
partner with Young Voices to develop and implement innovative
approaches to prevent teen dating violence.
Six months ago, Start Strong Rhode Island invited young
people to share their relationships, in 140 characters or less,
on our interactive Website, called hookupwithrespect.com. We
thought that we might get a few dozen entries from kids, but by
the end of the month, we had hundreds of stories from kids all
over the country like these: ``I go out with an amazing guy. He
cheated on me twice. I can't break up with him. Every time I
get angry, he yells at me and calls me insane. Signed, I love
him,'' 14-years-old, Providence.
This one: ``I was in an abusive relationship and I left.
Now, he's begging me to come back. He's buying me all the good
things and doing sweet stuff. I don't want to go back, but I do
miss him. Signed, Annie W.,'' 16-years-old, Providence.
The stories submitted to our site, in addition to the
dozens of interviews and conversations with hundreds of
students in classrooms, shows that young people in Rhode Island
know what's unhealthy and they see these negative (inaudible)
and they want to talk about the issues.
But these stories show that young people everywhere need to
learn how to build healthy relationships. When young people
learn and embrace healthy relationship skills, they can prevent
teen dating violence and future adult domestic violence or
sexual violence, as well as bullying, unintended teen
pregnancy, and alcohol and substance abuse.
So how do we make that happen? How can Congress partner
with advocates and educators to create ways to help young
people build healthy relationships?
What do we know about what works? Well, first, we need
Congressional support for comprehensive programs. We need
products that bring our message of non-violence into places
that youth are living and playing, school, home, after school,
sports fields, and, also, in the connected world of smart
phones and Facebook.
Start Strong Rhode Island brings comprehensive and engaging
prevention strategies to our school and community through a few
key strategies. We're using the Fourth R, an evidence-based
healthy relationships curriculum and have reached over 600 7th-
and 8th-graders since October 2009.
The social and emotional learning curriculum integrates
interactive storytelling, multimedia, and performance. But
we're also reaching out to parents with a program called
Passport to Social Media, which helps parents prevent abuse in
a digital world, so that they can work at home to keep their
kids safe.
Second, we need Congressional--we need Congress to
recognize the importance of authentic youth-adult partnerships
in this work. That means that we need to involve groups like
Young Voices who work with young people and teach them how to
understand laws so that they can advocate for policy change.
Finally, we need Congressional support for this
conversation being on the social Web, Facebook, Twitter, and,
also, videogames. At Start Strong Rhode Island, we're investing
a significant amount of money in the social media tools,
because we know that social and electronic media are no longer
a pastime. A recent poll from the Pew Center of American Life
shows that half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day.
That's 1,500 texts a month.
In another study from the Pew Center, 90 percent of
teenagers classify themselves as gamers. That's also why we are
going to, in October of 2011, release a videogame that will be
the first immersive video game to support the teaching and
learning of positive, protective relationship-building.
We're leveraging the power of gaming to create an engaging
virtual teen dating violence prevention curriculum that kids
will be able to access anytime, anywhere they have access to
the Internet.
Yes, we need to be aware of the risks of these
technologies, such as cyber-bullying and sexting, but we need
to utilize them as opportunities. Social media and mobile
technologies can be used to promote prevention and responsible
bystander behavior.
Any effort to stop teen dating violence must help youth
learn to use these technologies responsibly and help them--and
use them to disseminate prevention methods.
Each of the 11 Start Strong communities across the country
have innovative strategies for schools to change policies, use
social media, and reach parents and older influencers to be a
part of this prevention work.
I urge you to look at these models by going to
startstrongteens.org.
In closing, to reach and engage youth, it's not enough to
teach prevention in the classroom. Advocates, parents and youth
leaders need to meet kids where they are and help them achieve
healthy relationships on and offline.
[The prepared testimony of Ms. Reilly appears as a
submission for the record.]
Senator Whitehouse. Thank you very much, Kate.
[Applause.]
Senator Whitehouse. Thank you for your leadership in
bringing this message (inaudible). It is critically important.
Our final witness is Ruth Zakarin. Ruth is the executive
director of the Katie Brown Educational Program, a relationship
violence prevention program serving Rhode Island and southern
Massachusetts.
Previously, Ms. Zakarin managed a program and provided
services for victims of domestic violence and their children in
a variety of settings, including hospitals, shelters, and
community-based programs.
She holds a master's degree in social work from the
University of Pennsylvania.
Thank you very much for your testimony.
STATEMENT OF RUTH ZAKARIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, KATIE BROWN
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM, FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS
Ms. Zakarin. First, I want to thank Chairman Whitehouse for
hosting this hearing, and all of you for being in attendance.
I am privileged to provide information about our program as
a way of highlighting the importance and role of educational
programs in preventing and eventually ending teen date
violence.
The Katie Brown Educational Program is a relationship
violence prevention program. We work with students from 6th
grade through high school, teaching information they need to be
healthy and safe in all of their relationships.
Since our inception in 2001, we have reached over 47,000
individuals with our program. Our curriculum addresses a range
of topics, including conflict resolution, managing anger
without violence, recognizing the signs of an abusive
relationship, standing up for your own rights, while also
respecting the rights of others.
We also teach about the different kinds of violence found
in a relationship--physical, emotional, verbal, financial, and
sexual violence. It is our belief that proactive education is
at the core of preventing violence.
This education cannot wait until high school when students
are already involved in dating relationships and have formed
many of their attitudes about how relationships should work. It
is never too early to start teaching young people about how to
have a healthy relationship.
This kind of education provided early and often is
extremely effective in reducing relationship violence. This
belief has been reinforced by a 2007 study from the CDC on the
effectiveness of universal school-based programs on the
prevention of violence and reckless behavior.
This report included bullying and dating violence
prevention programs that met certain criteria, and found that
for every $1 spent on prevention, over $3 were saved in health
care and criminal justice costs per youth.
At the Katie Brown Educational Program, we see the impact
of such programming every time we enter a classroom to teach.
All of the students who receive our curriculum complete three
important tests. These three important tests measure changes in
beliefs and attitudes about violence in relationships from
bullying and healthy friendships in younger grades to dating
violence in older grades.
For example, in the 2009-2010 school year, 92 percent of
participating 5th-graders believed in the following statement--
I feel like I can now stick up for myself without hurting
anyone--at the completion of our program. Ninety-four percent
of 7th-graders identified at least one part of their own
behavior that they need to change to be more respectful in
their relationships.
Ninety-one percent of 8th-graders said they were willing to
change their stereotypical ideas to be more tolerant and
accepting of others. And 93 percent of high school students
stated that they were more aware of the warning signs of an
unhealthy or abusive relationship.
These responses show us that when we talk to young people
about violence in relationships, they listen. It is imperative
that we give youth the opportunity to explore their own
attitudes and beliefs about relationships. We have to teach
young people what it means to be respectful to peers and,
eventually, to dating partners.
We must work with you to change social norms and create a
culture where violence is not tolerated and where abusing a
partner or peer is simply not acceptable.
On April 4, 2011, Vice President Joe Biden spoke at the
University of New Hampshire about the responsibility of
colleges and universities to prevent sexual violence on campus.
In his remarks, Vice President Biden spoke passionately about
not just responding to victims, but working to prevent such
violence so that there are no more victims.
I would like to end with something the Vice President
shared during his speech. Really, changing attitudes is what we
need to do the most. Folks, if we are going to end violence,
not reduce, but end it, we are going to have to change
attitudes. That is the core of the problem.
Again, I would like to thank Chairman Whitehouse for
working in partnership with us to ensure that the necessary
support and resources are available for the prevention of teen
date violence.
[The prepared testimony of Ruth Zakarin appears as a
submission for the record.]
Senator Whitehouse. Thank you very much.
[Applause.]
Senator Whitehouse. So let me ask each of you, first, for
some recommendations. We in Congress will be, I hope soon,
reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act in the Judiciary
Committee. I hope we will also be taking up fairly soon the new
education bill in the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Committee.
Obviously, the education-related bill would have to be
fairly school-based in order to stay within the jurisdiction of
that committee. But between the two of them, the VAWA
jurisdiction and the ESEA jurisdiction, it should cover this
area pretty broadly.
What are the key program additions that each of you would
recommend?
And let me add that the record of this hearing will stay
open for a week after the conclusion of the hearing and
anything additional that you or anyone else may wish to file
will be added to the record of the hearing.
So you do not have to give me a perfect and complete answer
right now, because later on I want a more comprehensive answer
than time permits. (Inaudible.]
Let me hear your thoughts on what you think are the most
important areas we should be sure to invest our (inaudible).
Ms. Burke. On the ESEA, I believe what we will submit are
language changes and there will be (inaudible) school programs,
to include language for teen dating violence, preventing teen
dating violence. And there is no doubt that funding from that
department can specifically apply to teen dating violence
programs, as well.
Second, with VAWA, we are recommending--and we will
definitely put our written proposal in the--include it in the
record for you--but we support what the Obama Administration is
doing as far as having an umbrella over all the programs that
are now in there, like the Aging Men program, the step program
which offers some funding for school-based programs, creating
policy.
We do support a comprehensive approach, but we very
specifically recommend the emphasis on prevention. Prevention
must be included in that. Right now, there is no funding for
prevention included.
We just need the resources to work on prevention. Community
agencies are part of that solution. They need resources to work
with the schools on prevention so that we can have a
comprehensive approach.
We can't ignore the relationship between the community
resources, the schools, the parents, the coaches. It's going to
take everyone. It takes a village to raise a child. It's going
to take a village to solve this problem.
So the emphasis primarily on prevention within that
comprehensive package in VAWA.
Senator Whitehouse. And, Deb, what would you recommend?
Ms. DeBare. I could go on for another half-hour about this
because the Violence Against Women Act is so lengthy and
comprehensive. But for the record here, what I would like to
say is, in particular, in Title 3, which is the services and
prevention for younger victims of violence elements, those are
the sections we are going to be submitting in writing, the
areas that we would like to see some additional language to
ensure that prevention are eligible activities and that the
focus can be in prevention. The Keeping Our Campuses Safe Act,
for example, right now, those grant programs fund services and
intervention. We want to make sure that prevention activities
can be included there. And we want to make sure that all the
prevention and protection programs are working, as Ann said, in
a consolidated way and not duplicating efforts.
Now, I would be remiss, also, if I didn't mention Title 1
of the Violence Against Women Act, because the judicial and law
enforcement tools, while they are most traditionally thought of
as intervention strategies, are hand-in-hand, part-and-parcel
with prevention.
It has been proven that strong prosecutions results can
deter and prevent future situations of domestic violence from
occurring. So we have a number of recommendations that would
strengthen Title 1, with the judicial and law enforcement
tools, as well.
Senator Whitehouse. Kate, what would be your first
recommendations to us?
Ms. Reilly. I would join Ann and Deb in supporting the
consolidation of the VAWA violence prevention programs. I also
am very much in support of comprehensive programs, and I think
that we have a particular opportunity to expand comprehensive
prevention in VAWA.
I think that it's important to make sure that prevention
programs leverage social networking, digital communication, and
gaming are included and encouraged in those RFPs. And I would
also encourage to include--to be as comprehensive as you
possibly can in the ESEA language, and, in addition to the very
important piece of classroom education, also include prevention
activities that reach out to parents from the school, and
engage the school in reaching those parents.
Senator Whitehouse. And, Ruth.
Ms. Zakarin. I certainly want to echo all the words of my
colleagues and, also, add a piece about curricular standards so
that schools are given some guidance about expectations for the
inclusion of prevention curricula throughout the students'
engagement in school.
Senator Whitehouse. Where would you suggest those be
developed or approved?
Ms. Zakarin. I think that there is room for them in either
VAWA or in school-based legislation. And I also would recommend
that that legislation include language not just about what we
want to prevent, but, also, what we want to encourage so that
there is very clear and strong language about teaching the
young people the skills they need to have healthy
relationships; so not just what they shouldn't be doing in
relationships, but what a healthy relationship should look
like.
Senator Whitehouse. Tell me when you think we should start
focusing on this issue in terms of the ages of the kids who
begin to get involved. I have been very involved in middle
school legislation.
President Obama, when he was in the Senate, had a bill that
he supported called Success in the Middle. That has now become
my legislation in the Health Committee, and that could provide
a vehicle. And I just wanted to hear from you on whether that
is too soon, not soon enough, about right in terms of when we
need to engage with kids on this issue.
Ms. DeBare. I don't think it's ever too soon to start
discussing and working with children and youth at this. For
example, even in working with preschool children who are
experiencing and witnessing domestic violence in their home,
early intervention with children at that age can dramatically
reduce the risk of repeat cycles of abuse.
And so I think it's misleading to think that if we just
start in middle school to address the problem, that we will
have taken care of it. There are definitely different
interventions and strategies for working with developmentally
aged children, but there are programs that are out there that
are geared toward elementary school children, working on
conflict resolution and starting to build those resiliency
skills for children who already are at risk.
Senator Whitehouse. Before they get into a relationship,
the skills are laid down.
Ms. DeBare. Absolutely.
Ms. Zakarin. I would also add that I know that we are
talking about this in terms of teen dating violence, but if we
look at teen dating violence as one component of relationship
violence as a whole and we look at that as a continuum, I think
it becomes clear that we can start talking to children about
what it means to have a healthy relationship and prevent
violence in their peer relationships, their relationships with
others, and, eventually, in dating relationships, and that can
start very early on.
So I would agree with Deb that it's never too early to talk
to a child about what it means to have a healthy relationship
and what the definition of respect is.
Senator Whitehouse. Tell me a little bit more about the
problem of children who witness violence. We worked on this
together, Deb, when I was attorney general. What are the latest
findings on this?
Ms. DeBare. Well, as the years have gone on, there's more
research out which, unfortunately, shows that there are
significant behavioral and emotional factors that are impacted
in children when they witness domestic violence in the home.
We used to think that witnessing domestic violence meant
that the children were present in the room when the violence
occurred, but we've seen an impact shown when children are in
the household. They may be in a different room and hear the
abuse going on and the impact is as heightened for them as if
they were in the same room.
And so we need to look at the family as a whole unit in
that sense and realize that it's not just the two parties that
are in the assaultive situation that are impacted.
Senator Whitehouse. And what is the effect that has been
shown to take place with children who are witnesses to domestic
violence, whether immediately or several rooms away, just
hearing it?
Ms. DeBare. Statistically, girls who witness domestic
violence are at higher risk for growing up to experience dating
violence or domestic violence as adults. Boys are at a higher
risk for repeating the patterns of the abusive behavior. And
both boys and girls are at risk of having emotional problems,
behavioral problems in school, suicide ideation, psychological
issues that present, mental health issues.
So there's a whole host of problems that have not even be
identified as having been caused or triggered by witnessing
domestic abuse. However, as I said earlier, with early
intervention, these effects can dramatically be mitigated.
Senator Whitehouse. Kate, tell me a little bit more about
the way in which the new social media technologies both enable
abusive and bullying behavior and, also, enable communication
that can help address those concerns.
How prevalent is it, for instance, for you to see that the
experience of violence or bullying that is brought to your
attention has a connection to social networking sites and
communications across social networks?
Ms. Reilly. We definitely need more research about cyber-
bullying and digital abuse. But to give you an idea, when I go
into a classroom of 30 kids and we start talking about digital
abuse, sexting, constant text messaging, digital disrespect,
there are few kids in the classroom who don't have a personal
story to tell about that.
There are some dynamics of connected culture that make
bullying more dangerous and more prevalent. No. 1, it's
sharing. So before, you would have a message or maybe a fight
between two people, that would have been just contained to that
relationship. Now, that's something that can spread to
hundreds, even thousands of people in less than a second.
You also have the audience effect. Conflicts can arise
exponentially when you have hundreds or thousands of people
looking in on it. And, third, you have what we call the
invisible wall.
Sometimes people get a dose of cyber confidence because
they can't see who they're talking to, and people say and do
things to each other that they would never do in real life.
So those three dynamics take normal bullying, the same
routes, in real life and just enhances it and makes it more
pervasive.
What I love about the social Web, though, in terms of doing
the organizing and prevention work is that it allows you to
pull everybody's stories about a topic and share that. So a lot
of what we do at Hookup With Respect and with our video game is
actually creating the tools that allow people to tell their own
stories. And so we can bring the voices of thousands of kids
together at once.
Senator Whitehouse. I am warned that the bell is going to
ring in about a minute and that that will create a certain
amount of turmoil as the bell rings and people come and go.
So what I think I will do is just briefly adjourn the
hearing to allow that disruption to proceed, and then we will
come back into session briefly. And although it is not in order
for members of the audience to ask questions at a Subcommittee
hearing, I do not think that there is anything that prevents me
from listening to the questions and relating them to the panel.
So I may take a question or two from the audience and pass
it on to the two of you to help engage the discussion, and then
we will conclude the hearing after that.
So we will be adjourned for a few minutes until the bell
has rung.
[Whereupon, at 2:30 p.m., the hearing was recessed and
resumed back on the record at 2:42 p.m.]
AFTER RECESS
Senator Whitehouse. The hearing will return to order. And
what I think I will do is see if there is a question or two in
the audience that I can relate to the panel so that we have a
little bit of audience participation here. And I also wanted to
give Ruth a chance to tell a little bit the story of Katie
Brown and how the Katie Brown Education Project came into
being, because it has made a really significant difference,
but, unfortunately, it started in sorrow, as well.
If you could explain the background.
Ms. Zakarin. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do
so.
Our program is named after a young woman named Katie Brown.
She was a 20-year-old woman from Barrington, and she was
murdered in January of 2001 by her dating partner. And in the
aftermath of her death, friends of the Browns came together
with a domestic violence direct service provider in Fall River
to start a conversation about what could be done to prevent the
same fate from happening to any other young person. And from
there our program was born.
And at its origins, we started sending folks into area
schools to talk--start talking to young people about healthy
relationships, and our curriculum developed from there and we
now, as I mentioned before, have a curriculum for 5th grade
through high school and we teach in schools throughout
southeastern Massachussetts and Rhode Island.
And our staff is now at its largest with four educators who
are in area schools pretty much every week of the school year,
again, with the idea that we want to give young people the
skills and information that they need to recognize and prevent
violence so that there are no more victims.
Senator Whitehouse. I want to give a few other people a
voice in this hearing, as well, because I hear from Rhode
Islanders through letters and e-mail all the time on a wide
variety of topics and a number of them have written letters to
me about bullying, and I just want to share a few of those
thoughts.
One comes from a parent--these are from parents--in East
Providence. A child at her son's school had committed suicide
due to bullying and her son came to her to try to understand
what had happened. And she and her husband talked to her son,
but she was still anxious and concerned and she really didn't
have a good answer.
So she wrote to me this: ``When will this bullying come to
an end? What is it that we have to do to get the point across
that this is not acceptable and it will not be tolerated? It
breaks my heart as a parent to know that a life is now gone,
children are heartsick, and, God forbid, the reality of it all
is that it could be your own child, and now I send my child off
to school pondering and hoping that this never happens to my
child.''
Another parent wrote: ``My son is''--the first was from
Jennifer in East Providence, Rhode Island. This is Beth writing
in from Wakefield, Rhode Island. ``My son is in the 7th grade.
He is athletic and no outward appearances make him look like a
target for bullying. Yet, he is harassed daily. His grades have
gone from good to failing. He cannot even concentrate. He has
been assaulted and he can't hit them back or he will be
suspended. Something needs to be done. Our children are not
safe in school.''
And the last one I will read is from J. in Bristol County.
She said her daughter was being bullied because of the way she
dressed. A group of girls constantly were on her to the point
her school work failed and she feared going to school. The
problem ultimately escalated to physical violence.
She wrote: ``One day my daughter was beaten by one of the
girls and I was called to the police station. The offending
child was suspended briefly, but the girl's friends continue to
taunt my daughter with name-calling and threats.''
Eventually, she home-schooled her daughter and the daughter
is now successfully in college.
But I wanted to put into the record of this hearing the
extent to which I think this touches all of our lives, and I
hear so often from parents about this.
Now, before we wrap up the hearing, I did say I would give
people a chance. So if anybody has a question they would like
to ask, I will happily repeat it to the panel.
Yes, sir? Good afternoon.
Question from the Audience. [Off microphone.] My son was a
victim of gang violence. [Off microphone.] Despite all the
damage done to his head and his face, it was over $10,000, they
all walked. So this young lady was talking about stronger
prosecutions.
We need people in the attorney general's office--because I
know Sheldon was big on doing--he did a lot to stop it.
Well, the violence that is happening to these young people,
the courts are allowing it, our attorney generals are allowing
it. And it isn't just Rhode Island. It is happening across the
country.
So we need stronger prosecutions. [Off microphone] talking
to the state police about the situation, one of the things I
said to him, because they were involved in some of the internal
affairs aspects, I said to him, I said, ``You've got to love
the people and you've got to start--we've got to start
prosecuting the criminals.''
I do thank you for your time, and have a great day.
Senator Whitehouse. Thank you. I think we all heard the
question. Would anybody care to respond?
Ms. Burke. I think I would just like to say that having
been thrust into the judicial system several years ago, what I
very quickly learned was that victims have far few many rights
and criminals have far too many rights.
I don't know specifically which laws need to be changed or
amended, but I do think we need stronger laws. I do understand,
though, being an educator, that with youth crime, you would
like to think that we should give those offending youth a
chance to rehabilitate themselves, to change.
I was just talking with Deb, in fact, in terms of dating
violence. I've heard from several superintendents and
principals asking the question: So if we have an episode of
dating violence on school grounds, according to our policy, we
can discipline the abusive partner, but what do we do to re-
educate them, to help to turn them around?
And as an educator--and this is very difficult for me, with
a daughter that's been murdered. It's hard for me to look at it
from the viewpoint of the abusive partner. But I do--I try to
be as objective as possible and I do believe in my heart that
when you're talking about a youthful offender, that we have to,
as a society, give them a chance to rehabilitate themselves,
hopefully through some sort of an educational program.
However, I do believe that each of them have to be held
accountable for their actions. So I think that the re-education
and the rehabilitation has to be on top of the discipline or
being held accountable according to the law.
I don't know the specifics of your case, but I do believe
that far too often, we're a little bit too soft with criminals,
regretfully.
Senator Whitehouse. Let me ask an additional question.
Violence within a relationship often has different motivations
and different triggers than violence in other circumstances.
Are there programs that are particularly effective at
dealing with the offenders and giving them the chance to
rehabilitate themselves and to learn how to avoid traveling
that path again that are particularly effective in the
relationship violence context?
Ms. DeBare. Well, to answer that, what I would say is that
domestic violence and dating violence situations are primarily
crimes driven by motivation of power and control. And so as
learned behaviors, there are psychosocial programs that have
been developed over the past 15-20 years in a group setting
that are, at this point, the most effective that research has
seen.
Now, I'm not going to sit here and say that they are
effective or a cure, but there is some research that is
encouraging that for individuals who are motivated, that the
behaviors can change.
For the most part, though, to recognize that domestic and
dating violence is societally learned behavior--and so that as
a society, if we can change those norms and, in that way, hold
our own selves accountable, we have a much greater likelihood
of reducing domestic and dating violence.
Senator Whitehouse. And how long is the pull of childhood
exposure to violence in adult behavior? You said that it was
statistically significant, but how significant?
Ms. DeBare. Children who are exposed to domestic violence
are often six times more likely than children who are not
exposed to domestic violence to have symptoms or behavior
problems or repeat the cycle.
So while that is a high risk factor, it is not a direct
causal factor, and that's where the research is quite--there's
a large continuum about how large of a risk factor that really
is.
Early interventions, as I said before, have been proven to
take that risk factor and dramatically cut it down. So just
because someone grows up in a home where there is abuse going
on does not mean that they are automatically going to grow up
to be abusive.
Senator Whitehouse. And let me ask one more question about
the relationship. We have two topics today. One is bullying and
cyber-bulling, and the other is relationship violence, domestic
violence.
What is the connection between the two? How would you
describe it?
Ms. Zakarin. Well, I think there is a strong connection and
it's part of the reason why I use and our program uses the
words ``relationship violence,'' because that encompasses
violence in a peer relationship or bullying, cyber violence,
dating violence. And what has been found is that there are so
many similarities between the violence that happens among
peers; also, very often, about power and control, having a lot
of the same effects on health and well being, on academic
success, as dating violence.
So there is a tremendous amount of overlap, which is why I
think it's good to get away from putting dating violence and
bullying in different silos and seeing them as a continuum of
behaviors that all relate to relationship violence.
And I will probably sound like a broken record, but the
more that we can do to teach kids about what a healthy
relationship looks like, wherever, at school, at home, with a
dating partner, the more we will see a reduction in such
issues.
Senator Whitehouse. And that would be equally true whether
the bullying was simply verbal versus physical. It connects
nonetheless.
Ms. Zakarin. Sure. And what we try to do is to help
children understand that violence is more than just a physical
assault. Traditional schoolyard bullying, fighting is very
different now and sometimes children do not realize that
sitting in front of the computer screen and posting something
and hitting ``enter'' is a form of violence, and that using
your words to hurt someone or cause fear in someone is a form
of violence; or destroying someone's property, even if you're
not hurting them physically, is a form of violence.
So in these conversations, it's important that we give
young people a broader definition of what violence is and,
also, hold young people responsible for their own behavior so
that they're not perpetrating violence against others.
Senator Whitehouse. Very good. Yes? Please, Ann.
Ms. Burke. And as much as I agree wholeheartedly 100
percent with what Ruth just said, that we need to take that
comprehensive approach and especially starting early and there
is the overlap, most of the similarity has to do with the power
and control in the relationship.
I think, though, that whatever we do to address the
bullying situation, we cannot and must not let dating violence
get lost in the shuffle, because there are some differences as
it progresses.
Abusers of dating violence usually have a problem with one
person and one person only, and that's their romantic partner,
and, generally, much of that abuse takes place in private.
Oftentimes, we don't know who the abusers are. And that's why
when you see episodes of domestic violence in the news, people
will oftentimes say, ``I can't believe it. He seemed like such
a nice person.'' You wouldn't guess that that person was being
abusive to their romantic partner.
In stark contrast to that, when we look at bullying,
especially amongst young people, bullying is an overt behavior.
In school, everybody knows who the bullies are and victims know
that they're being victimized.
They may not most often feel secure enough and faith enough
to come forward and tell, but they do know that they're being
victimized. When we look at dating violence, most victims of
dating violence are not aware that they're victims of dating
violence. They're not aware that they're being abused.
So there are those differences and those are very
significant differences. So whatever we do educationally for
bullying, some of it in the early stages does certainly apply
to dating violence, but as we enter the middle school years,
we've got to address those issues both. We can't have them so
enmeshed that dating violence gets lost, because then we'll end
up back in the situation where we have victims not learning
warning signs, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Senator Whitehouse. Good. Well, you all have just done
wonderful work. And I want to assure you that as we go forward
in Washington on these issues, that we will be in close touch
with you. It is part of my job to bring the experience and
wisdom of Rhode Island down to Washington and try to improve
things there through the wisdom and experience that Rhode
Islanders can bring to so many different issues.
But on this one, I think, Rhode Island really has an
enormous amount to be proud of. And even though a great deal of
this leadership had its inception in tragedy, it is,
nonetheless, inspiring for that, indeed, it is wonderfully
inspiring because of that.
And so I thank you very much and I look forward to working
with you as we go forward. I just want to close with an
expression of my very great pride in what you have done in
Rhode Island and what you continue to do in Rhode Island every
day.
So without further ado, if there is anything that anybody
wants to add, the hearing will be open for an additional week
and they can send anything they would like in to my office and
we will add it into the record of these proceedings, and the
record of these proceedings will become part of the official
legislative record of the Congress of the United States.
So thank you very much for participating, and the hearing
is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 2:58 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
[Submissions for the record follow.]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.001
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.002
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.003
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.004
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.005
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.006
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.007
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.008
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.009
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.010
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.011
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.012
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.013
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.014
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.015
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.016
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.017
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.018
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.019
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.020
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.021
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.022
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.023
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.024
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.025
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 68183.026