Teenagers in their first dating relationships may lack the emotional maturity to handle, or even recognize, the signs of an abusive relationship; and an agency which helps teens facing this problem is working with schools to get the word out to these youths before they become victims.

February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, and the goal is to help adults and adolescents take steps to prevent dating from spiraling into violence.

Sherri Love-May is a crisis counselor with the Family Crisis Center; this Ottumwa-based organization handles crisis intervention in a twelve-county area including Marion County.

She tells KNIA/KRLS News both parties may not realize the pitfalls of a relationship becoming dysfunctional, and may even be swayed into thinking there’s nothing wrong at first.

“Dating is a learning experience as well as anything that they’re going through; and so there might be a lot of things that they don’t recognize that are happening in their relationship. They may find that through different social medias and different things like that, that some of the things they are experiencing are of the norm…when they are indeed actually not of the norm,” Love-May says.

These problems can affect any type of teenage couple, and Love-May says they want youths to understand any sort of violence directed against them is not healthy or playful…and they should seek help if they feel threatened or trapped in such a relationship.

Those teens who are experiencing such a problem, or anyone who knows somebody who is, can contact the Family Crisis Center at 641-683-1750, or call 24 hours a day at 1-800-464-8340.