SC teaches children to report parents for violating gun laws; firearms removed from home

September 9, 2015 | Ian Bayne | 9 Comments | Print Article

New recommendations from the South Carolina Domestic Violence Task Force call on schools to teach children “healthy relationships” as early as kindergarten, and build on a law that takes guns away from domestic abusers.

The effort encourages children to report parents, tapping into a legally mandated firearms ban written into the Protection from Domestic Abuse Act, signed into law in June by Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican.

South Carolina’s Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault director, Sara Barber, also a member of the task force, told WSPA Channel 7, “You don’t try and just introduce concepts of domestic violence to children or students in a one-hour setting, that you do it over sustained lengths of time. So you have eight or nine sessions that you repeat every year.”

The recommendations urge children to spot and report any incidents of dating violence, unhealthy relationships, or “other issues” at home.

From the August 31, 2015 report:

The Task Force supports these efforts to educate all students on domestic violence, dating violence, healthy relationships, and other related issues. Education for young people is important to help end the cycle of violence and prevent abuse and deaths among teens.

If found guilty of violating healthy home living, parents would lose gun rights for either life, 10 years, or three years. Restoration of gun rights would be awarded only after the FBI removes the subject from a national database.