NYSUT Resolved to End Violence Against Women

Posted: 
Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Violence against women is shameful, criminal and diametrically opposed to everything teachers stand for.

This spring, the 2018 Representative Assembly of the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) will convene to discuss the challenges facing teachers unions in our state and goals for the future.

One of the items on the assembly agenda will be the adoption of a resolution demonstrating NYSUT’s commitment to do whatever it can to combat what is most certainly a plague on our society as a whole.

The Levittown United Teachers is proud to have signed on to this resolution and plans to vote in favor of its adoption.

WHEREAS, violence against women is a cancer in our society and the majority of our members are women.

WHEREAS, 3 women are murdered every day by a current or former male partner in the U.S.

WHEREAS, a women is beaten every nine seconds in the US.

WHEREAS, over 4,500,000 women in the U.S. experience physical violence by an intimate partner every year.

WHEREAS, 1 in 4 women will be victims of severe violence by an intimate partner in their lifetimes.

WHEREAS, only 25 percent of physical assaults perpetrated against women are reported to the police annually.

WHEREAS, 50 percent of lesbian women will experience domestic violence (not necessarily intimate partner violence) in their lifetimes.

WHEREAS, 81 percent of women are stalked by a current or former male partner who also physically abused that woman.

WHEREAS, 1 in 5 women in the United States has been raped in their lifetime.

WHEREAS, women between the ages of 18-24 are most commonly abused by an intimate partner. WHEREAS, during their freshman year of college 15 percent of women are raped while incapacitated from alcohol or drugs, and 18 percent of students said they'd been raped while incapacitated before college, and 41 percent of those young women were raped again while incapacitated during their freshman year.

WHEREAS, more than 50% of college sexual assaults occur in either August, September, October, or November.

WHEREAS, one in 9 girls under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse or assault at the hands of an adult.

WHEREAS, 70 percent of women worldwide will experience physical and/or sexual abuse by an intimate partner during their lifetimes

WHEREAS, a woman is 70 times more likely to be murdered in the few weeks after leaving her abusive partner than at any other time in the relationship.

WHEREAS, domestic violence is the third leading cause of homelessness

WHEREAS, 8,000,000 days of paid work are lost by women every year because of the abuse perpetrated against them by current or former male partners. This loss is equivalent to over 32,000 full-time jobs.

WHEREAS, between 21-60% of victims of intimate partner violence lose their jobs due to reasons stemming from the abuse.

WHEREAS, financial abuse occurs in 98% of all domestic violence cases. The number one reason domestic violence survivors stay or return to the abusive relationship is because the abuser controls their money supply, leaving them with no financial resources to break free.

WHEREAS, $5,800,000,000 was the estimated cost of incidents of intimate partner violence perpetrated against women in the U.S. in 1995 alone.

WHEREAS, 10,000,000 children are exposed to domestic violence every year, and 90% of these children are eyewitnesses to this violence.

WHEREAS, boys who witness their mothers’ abuse are more likely to batter their female partners as adults than boys raised in nonviolent homes. Girls who witness their mother’s abuse are more likely to believe that threats and violence are the norm in relationships, leading them to be more likely to becoming involved in abusive relationships.

WHEREAS, men and boys must become part of the solution to ending violence against females instead of being a major part of the problem.

 

RESOLVED, that NYSUT advocate for the development of a comprehensive education program for HS and college age females to promote awareness of the dangers of sexual violence under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol which would include practitioners from the ranks of our membership as well as the NYS Department of Education.

RESOLVED, that NYSUT advocate for the development of a comprehensive guide involving our health care and pupil personnel service professionals, our primary, secondary and college educators intended for our professional workforce to become better educated about the issues of violence against women and girls.

RESOLVED, that the Executive Board examine the possibility of starting a statewide task force to develop strategies to work with our members and our partners to develop a campaign to end violence against females.

RESOLVED, that a program of education be developed for our k-22 school male population that stresses the importance of respectful behavior towards females, and all that encompasses. This effort should involve coordinating with groups such as Men Can Stop Rape, NCADV, and White Ribbon Campaign, as well as State Ed.

RESOLVED, that NYSUT work with our NYS legislators to bring more resources to help the agencies that work in assisting female survivors to recover their lives.

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