Youths Made Aware of Dangers : Center Goes to School to Prevent Teen Date Rape

It begins innocently enough with a hug, a cuddle and a kiss. But more and more often it ends in horror--date rape.

FBI statistics show that in half of all reported rapes, the victim and the rapist are teen-agers. Four out of five teen-age rape victims are assaulted by someone they know, frequently while on a date.

Preventing date rape is one of the educational goals of the Santa Monica Hospital’s Rape Treatment Center. For the last four years, it has sent lecturers to classrooms to teach teen-agers about rape, incest and other sexual abuses.

To that end, this summer the center published a pamphlet, “How It Happens.” Marybeth Roden, a spokeswoman for the center, said the colorful, 30-page book was written “to suit the teen-age life style and to appeal to modern teen-age tastes.

Dangers in Everyday Situations

“Kids tend to think all rapes take place at the hands of strangers in dark alleys,” Roden said. “We want to point out the dangers they can avoid in situations they face every day, such as at parties, at home or on a date.”

Roden said acquaintance rape is sometimes triggered by miscommunication.

“Guys are taught that when a girl says ‘no’ she means ‘yes,’ or, ‘You’re not trying hard enough,’ ” she explained. “And girls are not always taught to say what they really feel in an assertive manner. Sometimes they send the wrong messages, and they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Roden predicted that the 20,000 copies of the pamphlet will go quickly when volunteers start distributing them in classrooms this fall. They are already in demand, Roden said, in summer-school health education classes.

Since 1984, the state has required that students be instructed in rape prevention four times before high school graduation. Tony Magnante, a health teacher at Van Nuys High School for 10 years, said that before the Rape Treatment Center’s lectures started there in 1982, rape education was limited to one textbook page.

“It’s usually a topic that nobody talks about,” Magnante said.

“The kids are uncomfortable and they snicker at first, but by the end of the program they’ve changed. They take it very seriously, and are much better educated.”

Center volunteers visit classes three times in a week for a one-hour period, during which they discuss sexual abuse, its prevention and how to handle a friend or relative who has been raped. Students engage in role-playing to help them understand the peer pressure and sex-role stereotypes that make dating conducive to abuse.

In addition, they watch films of young people discussing their rape experiences, which Magnante said are most effective in getting students to talk about the topic in class.

The booklet lists case studies of young men and women victimized by rape, incest, flashing, obscene telephone calls and voyeurism. It encourages victims who have not acknowledged their ordeals to seek counseling and police help.

“Date rape is more of a problem than I used to think it was,” Magnante said. “Often my students will meet with counselors on the third day and say they or their friends have been abused. Many didn’t understand what a date rape was.”

George Cabral, 17, recently heard about sexual abuse from volunteers in his Belmont High School classroom in downtown Los Angeles.

“In the beginning, it was hard to talk about these things with my friends in class, but the films and the role-playing made it easier,” he said. “But now we talk about it even outside of class. We didn’t realize how much of a problem it was.”

Cabral said the seminars will influence his dating behavior.

“I’ll listen more carefully to the person I’m with,” he said, “and not do anything she doesn’t want to do.”

Already Careful

Cabral’s classmate, Monica Morales, 17, said she already is careful about who she dates and where they go.

“But after these lectures, I know so much more,” she said. “I’ll really keep my eyes open around people I don’t know, and be only with people I can trust.”

Morales said that her new-found knowledge will not scare her away from dating, but she will be more careful in everyday situations such as walking home from school and greeting strangers at her door.

“You have to be aware of the dangers so that you can protect yourself,” she explained. “That means all the time, and especially on dates. After all, not everything that shines is gold, right?”