Violence

These are stories about different types of violence, such as street violence and family violence.   

Case #1

No one owns me

Janet could not understand why Todd didn’t want her to have any friends. She just wanted to study with them in order to prepare for a test at school. He would often hang out with his own friends and ignore her. He even spent time with his friend, Karla, alone in her house. All of this bothered Janet very much, but she would never say anything. She thought that this was his way of showing how much he cared for her, but it felt suffocating at times.

One time they were on a date at the movies with a group of friends. They had an argument and then Todd began acting strange. She asked if they could leave. He became very angry and yelled at her in front of everyone. She wanted to just leave on her own, but he insisted that he take her home and pushed her out the door. She thought he would apologize but instead he became even angrier and shouted that she had embarrassed him in front of his friends. When she complained to him that he often treated her badly, he told her she would have to deal with it. Sometimes, he becomes so angry that Janet is frightened of him.

Case #2

NO!

Frida desperately wanted to be part of Sara’s group at school. They were the popular crowd. When Sara invited her to a party, she was thrilled. It would be at Angela’s house since her parents were out of town for the weekend.

She was pretty nervous about hanging out with the fun people. When she got there, Sara acted excited to see her and gave her a beer to drink. She had never tried beer before and it tasted horrible. But she didn’t want anyone to know that she didn’t like it so she drank it all.

Later, Sara told her that a boy by the name of Randy wanted to meet her. Frida was so pleased because she knew who Randy was. He came over and started talking to her. But the music was so loud they couldn’t really hear each other. He suggested they go into a bedroom to talk, and she thought that was a good idea.

In the bedroom, Randy wasn’t really interested in talking. He kissed her and then tried to take her clothes off. She told him “no”, but he kept insisting. Finally, he became mad and threw her down on the bed. Over and over, she said “no”, but he would not listen nor stop. After it was over, she went home and cried in her room.