Local News - November 2002

Violent deaths prompt outreach program at LHS

Students deal with long-term hurt

By JEREMY ASHTON, LTN Staff Writer

November 22, 2002 - Amber Lawson wanted to do something meaningful.

In the span of nine days, Lawson, 15, a sophomore at Lincolnton High School, lost one friend to domestic violence and watched another grieve over the loss of her mother from a similar incident.

She sat at her computer on the night of Nov. 11, talking on-line with Kathy Bosiak, an earth science teacher. The two were trying to figure out a way to make something good come of the tragedies.

Out of that late-night talk, Lawson, Bosiak and Sarah Gates, 15, another sophomore, formed Lincolnton High’s Domestic Violence Outreach Program.

“We’re never going to get over everything that’s happened,” Lawson said. “It’s just a way of dealing with it.”

The aims of the group, which met for the first time Thursday afternoon in Bosiak’s classroom, are to make people more aware of domestic violence and to raise money for Amy’s House, a shelter for victim’s of domestic violence.

About 25 students showed up Thursday, but Lawson said the group has 107 members, including 30 boys.

Lawson and a few other students began the first fundraiser this week, collecting donations for Amy’s House during lunch at Lincolnton.

If the program takes off at Lincolnton, Lawson said she would like to see it expand to the other high schools in the county and eventually down to the middle and elementary schools.

“I’m just phenomenally proud of these guys,” Bosiak said. “They’ve taken something that’s really awful and funneled and focused it into something that is phenomenally productive.”

At its first meeting, the group brought in two law enforcement officers familiar with domestic violence cases, Det. Sally Dellinger of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and Lt. Kenny Shrum of the Lincolnton Police Department.

Dellinger and Shrum gave the students facts on domestic violence, told them about Amy’s House and advised them what to do if someone they knew was being affected by an abusive relationship. The two passed out pamphlets, bags and magnets related to Amy’s House and gave the students posters they could put up around school to further heighten awareness.

“I admire you for taking the time to help somebody else,” Shrum said.

The last three weeks have been tough on everyone at Lincolnton but especially Bosiak and her third-period earth science class.

An empty seat remains at one table in her classroom for Amanda Barnhardt, a freshman who was killed Nov. 1 along with her mother, Gael Morrison, by her stepfather, Kevin Morrison. Sitting next to that chair every day is Brittney Ebert, a close friend of Amanda’s and the 14-year-old daughter of Lisa Ebert, who was shot Nov. 10 in Bessemer City by her estranged husband, Mark.

“I’m losing kids out of my class because of this and watching what’s going on to them,” Bosiak said. “It’s not just the impact immediately of what happened … ; it’s the hurt that lasts for a long time afterward.”

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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