February brings awareness to teen dating violence.

Dallas County Health Navigation Coordinator Ann Cochran says that sometimes teen dating violence can be overlooked or embarrassing to talk about but needs to be addressed. She says that often teens can think that behaviors like teasing or name calling are normal parts of a relationship but often can become abusive. She says that preventing abusive behavior can be avoided by just having a discussion. 

“The folks who can make a difference in reducing teen dating violence are parents and other mentors of our high school kids, please if you haven’t had that conversion be open with the teenagers you know about dating violence.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held a survey in 2019 that reported one out of 12 teen relationships had physical violence and about one out of 12 relationships also experienced sexual violence.