Secondary school students welcome Sophie Elliott

Secondary school students welcome the Sophie Elliott Foundation

Secondary school students welcome the Sophie Elliott Foundation launched yesterday.

Ten students from secondary schools across Auckland attended the media conference at AUT University that launched the Foundation.

One of the aims of the Foundation is to implement a primary prevention programme into secondary schools, educating young women of the signs of abuse in dating relationships and young men of how to be ethical bystanders.

The signs of abuse were something both Sophie Elliott, the girl murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 2008, and her mother Lesley Elliott missed.

Grace Bell, 18, from Westlake Girls High School says that she believes an education programme is essential.

“At school we have talks on attitude, drugs and alcohol, peer pressure, and sex but nothing on relationships. When we have sex talks it is all focused on the sexual aspects of it, STIs and pregnancy, but nothing about the relationship side of sex. There needs to be an emphasis on this.”

Devon van Der Wende, 17, from Lynfield College says that the Foundation’s launch made her realise that relationship abuse is more prevalent than she thought.

Both Grace and Devon felt that information about what consists of abusive relationships, and where to go for help, needs to be made available to the students, as a lot of this is unknown to their age group.

“Relationship abuse definitely needs to be a topic in high schools,” says Devon.

“I walked away feeling like I learnt a lot,” says Grace of the media conference.

Grace and Devon fully support the Foundation's aims and feel that their friends and family would support them too.

“I want to do something now to help the Sophie Elliott Foundation get up and running,” says Grace.

The Foundation aims to bring a world best practice education and awareness programme to New Zealand, similar to those that have been successful in Australia, America, and Canada.

These countries have been delivering advanced and proven programmes to young people for a number of years.

Programmes that have been researched by the Foundation include Love Bites and Sex and Ethics, both from Australia.

The chosen programme will be adapted to meet the New Zealand community and its needs.

However, this aim will only be made possible if the Foundation can raise enough money to fund such a programme.

The Foundation is calling on the people of New Zealand to donate to the Foundation and help keep our young women safe.

Lesley has already begun the education by speaking to secondary schools in Dunedin and at Otago University.

“I wanted to talk to Year 13 girls at high school in an informal way and tell them what (Sophie’s relationship with Clayton) was like, this was a true life story,” says Lesley.

Lesley will continue these talks, “Sophie’s story – What WE missed”, in secondary schools and with any other group that is willing to listen.

To young women, Lesley says, “If you feel unsafe in a relationship, you probably are.”

ENDS

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