Old Firehouse Teen Center

 Over two thirds of women with disabilities have been sexually or physically abused as children.  The more caregivers a girl with disabilities has, the more likely they are to experience abuse.  People don’t always believe girls with disabilities when they complain about being abused.  Girls feel scared and worried after being abused.  They have limited sex education, so if something happens to them, they may not realize it’s abuse.  These girls might not know who to talk to or what to do if this violence occurs.

 Home  School  Group Homes  Taxi’s  Buses  Shelters  ANYWHERE

 Relatives  Family Members  Caregivers  Teachers  Doctors  Friends  Neighbors  ANYONE

 Anytime  One woman said, “Scariest when alone at night or when the person abusing is someone you know and love.”

 Feel shame  Guilty  Depression  Headaches  Develop eating disorders  Trouble knowing who to trust  Difficulty concentrating  Drink alcohol  Use drugs

 Trust your instincts if you feel uncomfortable  Say no very assertively  Talk to those who you can trust  Leave the situation if possible  Take a self-defense course  Know where to call for help  Have support from friends

 Low frustration tolerance: Teens standing out in social situations  Social skill challenges: Difficulties in social communication can lead to rejection  Motor difficulties: Teens are made fun of because they are not able to perform certain motor oriented tasks  Assistive devices: Teens who do not use them/know what they are, can view them as weird

 Manipulative: Controlled by another student  Conditional: Mistaken friendship consisting of bullying behaviors  Exploitative: Features of teen’s condition used to bully

 Bullying can be a very serious problem  Bullies have serious personality problems  Take pride in picking on others  If witnessing it, separate the people involved  Talk to the victim/s  Ask them what is going on  Make sure they are OK  Ask about details (their feelings, length of time it’s been happening)  If you notice someone being a bully, try to stop it from occurring  Talk to the individual and ask why they are acting that way  Ask them what is going on at that time in their own lives  If it gets really serious, call the police

 When young people threaten or harass other teens or children using the internet or cell phones.  It’s hard to get away from it  Teens start to feel peer pressure from other teens  2 types of cyber bullying  Direct attacks (messages sent to the teens directly)  Cyber bullying by proxy (using others to cyber bully a victim)

 Facts from about-cyber-bullying  43% of kids have been bullied online. 1 in 4 has had it happen twice  70% of students report seeing bullying online  Cell phones are the most common medium for cyber bullying  90% of teens who have seen social-media bullying have ignored it and 84% who have seen teens bullying, tell the bullies to stop  1 in 10 victims will tell someone they trust about it

 Girls are twice as likely to be victims and perpetrators  75% of kids have visited a website making fun of other teens  58% of kids said that someone has said mean or hurtful things to them  Victims are 2 to 9 times more likely to consider committing suicide

 Instill etiquette on the internet to teens as early as possible  Better to educate the teens at a younger age, so that they don’t give into peer pressure when they’re older and involved in the social media world  Educating the teens about consequences of bullying (losing their accounts, less cell phone privileges)  Teaching teens to respect people and take a stand against bullying

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