Riana Scott

West Milford High School

67 Highlander Drive

West Milford, NJ 07480

November 2, 2016

Future President at the White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, DC 2500

Dear Future President,

Hi, my name is Riana Scott, I am a freshman at West Milford High School. There is a problem that seems to be occurring more and more in often in our country. The problem? Abuse. If you notice, the world itself has gotten a lot more...abusive I guess you could say. Domestic violence between two partners in front of children in my opinion is something that needs to stop. After reading this letter, I hope that something can be done about this re-occurring issue in our country.

According to americanspcc.org/child-abuse-statictics in the last year, 3.6 million reports have been made about child abuse. Those are a lot of reports. If you had kids and you found out that one of their friends went home everyday to be harmed mentally, physically or emotionally? I know I wouldn’t feel comfortable letting that child go home without doing anything. More than four children die from abuse everyday. No human being, young or old, should have to go through a life full of abuse. Also, if you go to ncadv.org/learn-more/statistics nearly 20 people per minute are being physically abused by an intimate partner. Women between the ages of 18-24 are commonly abused by their partner. In the United States, 1 in 5 women and 1 in 18 men have been raped in their lifetime, 1 in 5 women and 1 in 7 men have been victims of severe physical abuse, and 1 in 15 children are exposed to intimate partner violence each year, 90% of these children are eyewitnesses to this violence.

What could be the possible causes of this violence in partners? Well, if you look at the website psychcentral.com/lib/what-causes-domestic-violence/ it explains how domestic violence in partners usually begin when one partner feels as if they need to gain control of the other. The cause of this feeling can be from low self-esteem, jealousy, or strong emotional issues. Typically, children who grow up around violent surroundings will begin to think that violence is the only answer to a problem. This is not a mindset that any of our parents want our children to have. By children having this mindset, this may be the cause of bullying. We need to keep our children from being exposed to violence like this so that way we can begin to put a stop to bullying in our schools.

According to www.joyfulheartfoundation.org/learn/domestic-violence/effects-domestic-violence domestic abuse can have a negative impact on one's mind, body and spirit. Depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and dissociation are also effects domestic abuse can have on someone. Anyone can be affected by domestic violence. The ways that a person could be affected is mentally, physically, or emotionally. A way something can be done about the effects is someone can seek help from the authorities, or anyone who they can trust to help them. The person can seek medical help if they think that they really have something mentally, emotionally, or physically wrong with them. We need to make sure that if someone seems to be being abused that we get them to seek help, because no one should ever have to go through a harsh life of such cruelty. If two partners get in a fight they should only be attacking each other with the amount of love they have for each other.

There can be two perspectives to domestic abuse, depending on what one would classify as abuse, you can say that many people can agree on the first thing they think of when they hear the word abuse is hitting on someone or hurting them pretty badly. Spanking a child because they did something bad isn’t abuse, it’s discipline. However, if someone is hitting on a child because they had a bad day and the child didn’t even do anything could be considered a form of abuse. So there can be various ways of describing abuse to somebody.

As being the future president of the United States, I hope that you can try to put a stop to domestic abuse. Domestic violence in front of children is something that must end. Because that is where the roots of domestic abuse stay. Therefore, I hope this issue can find itself a resolution. Thank you for reading this and giving your undivided attention to this letter.

Sincerely,

Riana Scott

Student, West Milford High School