Domestic Violence Center presentations at Collinwood: Johanna's story

During the week of March 21, more than 200 students in Mrs. Beacham’s Health and Physical Education classes and Mrs. Mengel’s GRADS and Child Development Classes participated in a three-day workshop presented by Cleveland’s Domestic Violence Center. 

Shannon Crumpler, Teen Educator from Cleveland Domestic Violence Center presented a program Monday outlining Types of Abuse.  Students were involved in naming and giving examples of Physical, Verbal, Sexual, Mental (or Emotional) Abuse, and Financial Abuse. Also a hand-out was given which shows red flags on one side and green flags on the other.  The green flag side indicated healthy relationships and the red flag side gave signs that indicate a relationship can be going in the wrong or unhealthy direction. Both males and females can be guilty of abusive actions. 

Tuesday, Johanna Orozco, domestic violence survivor, held the Collinwood students spellbound with her story which ended in the March, 2007 shotgun blast to her face from her former boyfriend, Juan. She talked about her life, family and the beginning of what had been a wonderful, loving and caring relationship. For the first five to six months, everything was wonderful and beautiful. Then Juan became jealous, then possessive, controlling, and eventually abusive. 

After their final breakup, Juan raped Johanna at knifepoint, was arrested, and put on house arrest, awaiting trial. Juan did not follow the house arrest rules, stalked Johanna for days before walking up to the car she was about to drive and destroying a large part of her face with a shotgun blast. After months in the hospital, Johanna returned home where she finished her high school work, graduated with her class and was even elected prom queen. In the last four years in addition to her recovery, she has also told her story on television programs such as Oprah and 2020. After a plea-bargain, Juan was sentenced and is now serving 27 years in prison without chance for parole.

Johanna tells her story to help young people learn to recognize the signs of an abusive relationship and to get away from the abuser before it is too late. She does not want others to suffer as she has suffered nor for a person to become a perpetrator and spend the best part of their lives in prison. Johanna has had to undergo many reconstructive surgeries and now is a speaker for The Domestic Violence Center as well as a being a college student majoring in psychology. She helped pass two laws in Ohio related to teen dating violence. House Bill 19 requires schools to educate teens in grades 7-12 about teen dating violence and House Bill 10 allows juvenile victims of dating violence and bullying to obtain protection orders. 

Thursday, Mrs. Crumpler again led a discussion presenting the Cycle of Abuse and the definition of an apology. Having heard Johanna’s talk on Tuesday helped students understand that abuse runs in a cycle beginning with a “honeymoon period” when everything is good and may escalate to an explosion which may result in violence, then the perpetrator apologizes and everything is good until the tension builds and the abuse occurs again. 

We at Collinwood look forward to having Mrs. Crumpler return to finish up her series about healthy dating and avoiding abuse during a person’s entire lifetime.

DVC or Domestic Violence Center is available to area schools and community groups for similar presentations and in these subject areas:   

Day 1- Types of abuse, Cycle of abuse

Day 2- Setting boundaries, Consent, Definition of an apology

Day 3- Media influences on teens

Day 4- Healthy relationships, What’s a real man/woman

Day 5- Sexual assault (by Cleveland Rape Crisis Center)

My contact person for Cleveland Domestic Violence Center is: Shannon Crumpler, CHES, Domestic Violence Center,Teen Educator 216.688.7288, scrumpler@dvccleveland.org, www.domesticviolencecenter.org 24 Hour Hotline 216.391.HELPwww.facebook.com/dvc.cleveland

Judy Mengel has been a teacher at Collinwood for almost 19 years. She says, "Mostly, I have taught GRADS--a special class to help and enocurage teen parents to stay in school, wait to add the young family, graduate on time, and pursue training or college to attain a successful and valued career. I would like to tell the Collinwood Observer about the program and possibly help keep more students--both teen moms and dads in school to reach their goals and a better life for themselves and their families. Also this might help me to reach community agencies or business or even individuals who might wish to lend a helping hand or to give encouragement to the teen parent population."