Watching for red flags

One thousand little red flags dotted McKeldin Mall for the past two days as part of the launch of a program to raise awareness of relationship abuse and dating violence.

The Red Flag Campaign is geared toward educating college students on what a healthy relationship is and to motivate students to intervene in abusive relationships. Beginning in October as part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month the initiative aims to alert students to the red flags of an abusive relationship  — such as stalking behavior, excessive jealousy and forced isolation — and educate them on ways to address the issue.

Although yesterday's launch was the first for any university in the state, the Verizon Foundation, which piloted the program in October 2006 on 10 Virginia campuses with a Virginia domestic violence organization, has since taken it to 55 campuses across the country.

"A lot of the students that come by SARPP don't know how a healthy relationship should be,"  They say ‘I didn't know that that [behavior] wasn't OK, I didn't know what to expect,'" said Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Program Coordinator Allison Bennett, who also helped to arrange the event.

She said the campaign will let students know what acceptable relationship behavior is. 

The University Health Center is also hanging posters around the campus alerting students to the dangers and signs of unhealthy relationships. Health center officials said the red flags will be replanted whenever they launch an event on domestic abuse.  

One such poster shows a young woman sitting in an area similar to the mall with a red flag partially covering her face that reads "He makes me think I'm fat and stupid and no one else would want me." The poster instructs students who may know of others in similar situations to say something such as "You deserve better." 

In the past, relationship abuse was mostly seen as a problem for older people with family obligations and financial reasons to stay in the abusive relationship, Associate Director of Public Relations at Verizon Wireless Melanie Ortels said. 

"Traditionally, people have been thinking about domestic violence within the confines of a traditional relationship," Ortels said. "However, it has been infiltrating the dating relationships of young women who don't know what a healthy relationship is."

One partner is being abused in 21 percent of college relationships, event organizers said, emphasizing abuse does not always fit into stereotypical molds. The campaign also targets awareness of dating violence in same-sex relationships — two of the seven posters hung around the campus feature lesbian and gay relationships.

The program launched with 1,000 flags placed on the mall on Tuesday afternoon as well as a short presentation on the steps of McKeldin Library yesterday. Speakers included Bennett, Vice President of Student Affairs Linda Clement, Student Government Association President Steve Glickman, Regional President of Verizon Wireless Mike Malorana, among others. 

Though many students purposefully attended the launch, others wandered over to the event as they passed by McKeldin Library. 

"Date rape and domestic violence is really prevalent on campus," junior public health major Jessie Tsai said. "I feel that it is one of the more taboo topics that students are not willing to talk about."

Malorana compared the campaign with other public awareness programs that have worked in the past, such as the campaign to increase seat-belt use in the 1970s. He said he believes just as the seat-belt campaign increased seatbelt use by increasing awareness, the Red Flag Campaign can decrease relationship violence by forcing students to notice what is often a private problem.

"By showing them what is OK and not OK in a relationship, ... we can change how we act and how we think," Malorana said.

In addition, through its HopeLine Program — which refurbishes and sells old cell phones and then donates the proceeds to domestic violence prevention and support organizations — Verizon Wireless donated $5,000 to the health center and presented SARPP with "critical response" cell phones. The phones would be used to respond to emergency calls after hours, health center officials said.

SARPP officials are encouraging students to donate their used cell phones at the health center to help jump-start other domestic abuse prevention and support programs elsewhere.

"This campaign is a great way to hopefully get students talking about it," Tsai said.

desmarattes@umdbk.com