It's challenging to make this sensitive subject easy to digest for young minds.
Hands are not for hitting, and that is the lesson being learned through two programs. Jordan Davenport and Antonio Garcia visit Florida schools to show children how physical or verbal aggression is not acceptable.
It sounds like a simple concept, but according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, “on average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States.”
It's challenging to make this sensitive subject easy to digest for young minds. Garcia and Davenport both work for the Naples Shelter for Abused Women and Children.
Jordan Davenport and Antonio Garcia spoke to WINK about giving young children the tools they need to stop domestic violence when they get older.
“I think that breaks down everything for them at a young age where they can remember these things as they get older, so they don't have to typically deal with issues like that going into middle school or high school. And if they do come up with that issue, then they will be able to know how to handle it,” Davenport said.
By equipping students at a young age, they’re hoping to break the cycle of violence.
“We first start off with the positive because we do you like to be positivity should come first, and then we work into what you're not supposed to do with your hands,” Garcia said. "It put in the situation that when someone hits it hurts a person's body, and it hurts a person's feelings too.”
