- [Host] February is Teen dating Violence Awareness Month, a time to talk about emotional and physical violence among young people in relationships.

Education is key to preventing the abuse, and a new Michigan law requires schools to teach teens about physical and sexual assault awareness.

"One Detroit's" Bill Kubota visited a high school where students are learning about dating violence and how to prevent it.

(ambient music) - [Bill] It's Macomb, Dakota High School ninth graders learning about relationships.

- Today's presentation is called Dating Secrets.

It is a presentation about teen dating violence.

- Research shows us right now that as young as 12, that abusive relationships are starting to develop and occur.

So this early prevention education in schools is vital to hopefully stop that cycle and end the violence before it even really begins.

- [Bill] Turning Point, based in Mount Clemens, advocates for survivors of domestic violence, leading discussions in many Macomb County schools, this session part of Dakota High's 20 week health class.

- Okay, quiz, how many high school students experience physical abuse from a dating partner each year in the United States?

Do we think it's 1,000, 15,000, 150,000, or 1.5 million?

It is 1.5 million high school students every year in this country.

- [Bill] A recent national survey found almost 10% of high schoolers reported suffering dating violence.

- That might even be more like controlling behavior, like abuse, right?

- [Bill] Other research shows that violence leaves lasting health impacts well into adulthood.

- Even though ninth graders, some of them, they're emotionally immature, you're just getting outta middle school, you're just really starting to experience life outside of your family system, that doesn't mean that you don't have the capacity to start to learn about really important life issues.

So I hope that people don't take away, like, ninth grade's too young or they're not ready for this.

They are ready for it, and they see it in TV shows and media.

They hear about it through their friendships and families.

It's an important time to start the education, but it also shouldn't be the end of it.

- Abuse can take many forms, but it is always about that power and control over another person.

And our definition of domestic violence applies to people who are in a romantic relationship.

They are involved in an intimate partnership, right?

So they might be dating or married, something like that.

- [Bill] Turning Point has been hosting these sessions for decades, but in more recent years, the onslaught of social media, a space where abusers exercise much of their power and control.

- Digital, that could be controlling your partner's social media accounts.

You could have a partner who asks to have the password to your accounts, the password to your phone.

It could be that someone wants to look through your Instagram DMs or your text messages to see what's going on in your life.

- It takes a little bit to settle in.

This is a hard topic, it's uncomfortable.

These are things that not a lot of teens really want to originally talk about.

And then we meet 'em where they're at and have engaging conversations.

And part of this program is anonymous questions and we get a lot of anonymous questions about what do I do if I'm in a relationship like this?

How do I get help?

How do I help my friend?

- [Bill] A few seniors we talked to say this class has stayed with them since they took it back in ninth grade.

- At the time it was kind of like, okay, well I need this class to graduate so I'm just going to get it done and over with.

And then when Turning Point came in, it was like, oh wow, this is completely different from what I thought was going on in middle school.

- I've known people that have dated older people and have been in that type of relationship where they have a power dynamic because they're dating somebody that's older than them that will take advantage of them because they're young and naive.

- It really kind of sets their path throughout high school and life, because they will come across relationship with different people, and not just like intimate relationships, but also relationships with friends.

- We know that many teens fear being punished by their parents for dating someone or for not breaking up with someone when their parents instruct them to.

Often teens might feel like their parents are trying to control them.

And if someone is already in a controlling relationship, adding that control from a parent can be really difficult and make a teen feel powerless.

But we also know that unless you tell your parents, they probably won't know.

In one study, while 82% of parents felt like they could identify all of the signs if their child was in a violent relationship, most parents could not correctly identify those signs.

- [Bill] A lesson here, confronting teen violence means tough conversations.

Young love can blind teens to what's really going on.

- Even the littlest things, like your partner is constantly asking you where you are with your friends.

Those are even signs of maybe an abusive relationship or things that might be a little wrong in your relationship.

And they really, it opened my eyes up a lot.

- There are many people still out there who don't really think they're in a toxic relationship or being domestically abused 'cause they think that that's all they have.

- I think that it's important that we have this in ninth grade.

One thing that I wish we could do is have it introduced again at a later stage of high school.

And I know it's hard in public school.

There's so many requirements for students to graduate.

- Can I have your papers please?

- But to have it be a one and done in my opinion is kind of disappointing.

But I'd love to have some kind of a senior seminar where before students are launched into adulthood that we had additional education on suicide prevention, violence prevention, and also drug prevention information to help launch them out into the world.

- And that is kind of where we can draw that line.