Know the Warning Signs of Domestic Violence

Know the Warning Signs of Domestic Violence

She testified in the O.J. Simpson trial; now Denise Brown speaks in Madison

Madison Magazine, June 2012

Excerpt from original source:

Across two brisk days in February 1995, Denise Brown took the stand in one of the most infamous murder trials in U.S. history. Denise’s sister, Nicole Brown Simpson, was dead; Nicole’s ex-husband, O.J. Simpson, was accused of murdering her. Witnesses came out of the woodwork testifying to O.J.’s alleged abuse, but it didn’t seem possible to Brown. There was no way her strong, vibrant sister had been a battered woman. She believed this, even as she testified to an incident in which Simpson, after hurling Nicole into a wall, physically threw both Nicole and Denise out of the house and onto the sidewalk.

“I just thought it was an isolated incident, I just thought he was crazy,” says Brown, who spent that night in a hotel with Nicole. “The words ‘domestic violence’ never even came into my head. I tell people all the time now, educate yourself about the cycle of domestic violence. Because that’s what I didn’t know anything about.”

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Why Doesn't She Just Leave?

Why Doesn't She Just Leave?

A special report on domestic violence

Madison Magazine, October 2011

 

Excerpt from original source:

Women in abusive relationships are far likelier to be killed while attempting to leave their partners — a surpising and frightening fact that Lisa Judd Blanchard, who lost her sister, and Julie Rook Schebig, who nearly lost her life, know all too well.

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Finding Safety

Finding Safety

How Safe Harbor helped Alex confront her history of sexual abuse

Isthmus, 31 March 2011

Excerpt from original source:

At first glance Alex looks like any other young adult. But if you sit with her for a while you can see the little girl she was. There is a slight tremor to her fingers as she swipes back her bangs, a self-protective hunch to her shoulders. Her dress is a fabric garden planted with hundreds of tiny, perfect daisies. What she has to say is shocking.

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Beware of Cyberbullies

Beware of Cyberbullies

Advancing technology makes it harder than ever to protect our kids — especially from each other

Isthmus, 20 May 2010

Excerpt from original source:

Even looking back on it now, Deb Archer did everything right. Like most parents today, the Dane County working mother carefully tiptoed the line between Internet safety and privacy.

Archer put the family computer in her home office, where she could keep a casual but deliberate eye on her 16-year-old daughter's Internet activities. And while her daughter's Facebook account was set to private, Archer had the password. She didn't check, though, in an act of trust.

"My daughter is a good kid," says Archer. "A nice kid, a cautious kid." They had a solid relationship, as far as teen girls and their mothers go.

There was a boy at school. He had some "obvious emotional and mental problems," and other kids picked on him. Archer's daughter did not. The boy developed a crush.

In person, the boy mostly kept his distance. On the Internet, however, he was much braver.

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