Schools can help prevent domestic violence, minister says

Schools play a key role in tackling domestic violence according
to Margaret Curran, minister for social justice, in announcing a
new school-focused initiative.

Curran made her comments at a conference, hosted by the
executive’s domestic violence prevention working group, where
pupils from Carrick Academy in Ayr and James Gillespie’s High
School in Edinburgh also presented powerful messages about domestic
abuse using artwork and statements from children in refuges.

One comment from a child living in a Women’s Aid refuge in
South Ayrshire read: “They can catch you for not having a TV
licence, but they can’t catch you for doing this to another
human being. My mum has no life.”

The executive has commissioned a paper on tackling domestic
abuse from Learning and Teaching Scotland the national body formed
by the executive to give advice on teaching methods, staff support
and other issues. The paper, ‘With All Due Respect’, is to be given
a key place in the national debate on education.

www.scotland.gov.uk