Kaylee Guthrie, FCCLA Officer and STAR Event competitor, developed a “Pledge Campaign” to help other students, as well as adults and faculty, realize what emotional abuse in a relationship looks like and how to prevent it. She hung a poster for the student body and administration to come join us in making a promise regarding relationships with others as well as themselves. 

“The idea for the ‘I Promise Myself Pledge’ developed through my passion for understanding and informing teens about healthy vs unhealthy relationships. Spreading awareness is crucial for teenagers because 1/3 of them will be in an emotionally abusive relationship. Youth who don’t understand the signs of emotional and mental abuse will either become the abuser and/or victim in the relationship. While I was teaching a class on the importance of knowing whether or not they’re in an unhealthy relationship, i discovered how little people know of this topic. I got very good feedback and discussion from each class period. My overall purpose for this is for teenagers to be strong enough to leave an emotionally unstable and/or manipulative relationship when recognized. We want to showcase this to help not only our students, but all students/ teens involved in relationships and be able to ‘recognize the signs.’

We challenge you to post a picture or write a story using the #ipromisemyselfpledge to share and spread awareness of this topic!”