Morse High School was third stop in nonprofit’s 2026 statewide domestic abuse-prevention tour
Students discussed worrisome behavior by Romeo, Johnny Depp, and Mother Gothel from Tangled when Finding Our Voices brought its Love/not Love program to Morse High School during Teen Dating Violence Prevention and Awareness Month.
The program was presented over two days to five of Sarah Bingham’s health classes as part of the grassroots nonprofit’s 2026 school tour. Finding Our Voices is bringing survivor-informed healthy dating-awareness to 15 high schools and middle schools from Calais to Sanford through April and continuing the tour in the fall.
The hour-long presentations to sophomores and seniors on February 5 and 6 started with 21-year-old UNE Biddeford student Lilly DesRoberts sharing. escalating abuse by a high school boyfriend that included stalking over Life360 and threatening to kill himself, how she ended up back with him after his domestic violence arrest, and what it took for her to finally escape.
Students then looked at the pattern of tactics abusers use to get and keep control of their intimate partners, and came up with a list of famous couples whose relationships seem to contain these tactics. They then divided up into groups to identify, discuss, and document the abusive behaviors on a Finding Our Voices adaption of the Power and Control Wheel.
Choosing to analyze Romeo and Juliet, Callum McInnis pointed out the love-bombing aspect of Romeo being “overly nice way too soon,” and also that their entire relationship played out over a few days. “Love at first sight is rushing it, and absolutely NOT healthy,” she noted.
Max Couture’s group identified the ways that Mother Gothel isolated, controlled, intimidated, manipulated, physically abused, and stalked Rapunzel in the movie Tangled, concluding, “abuse isn’t just in romantic relationships, it can be from family members as well.”
“It was really eye-opening and powerful,” said one student of the Finding Our Voices visit. “I liked that it was interactive and you got to step into someone else’s shoes.” Another said that examining relationships of popular culture couples “put abuse into a perspective I could understand.”
Patrisha McLean, CEO and Founder of Finding Our Voices, said a sophomore from Morse High School volunteered to join the group in visits to middle schools, saying that her boyfriend at that age put her through much of what Finding Our Voices discussed and “it would have really helped me, then, to have had this kind of presentation.”
The Finding Our Voices visits include a survivor-informed curriculum provided to schools ahead of time with exercises exploring dating-dangers of digital apps and social media, and how students can best help a friend they are worried about.
The next stops of the Finding Our Voices Love/not Love Tour are Carrabec Middle School and Dexter High School.
Finding Our Voices is the grassroots and survivor-powered nonprofit breaking the silence of domestic abuse around Maine and providing critical resources for women survivors to escape and rebuild their lives, including funding, donated dental care, and an online support group. For more information visit https://findingourvoices.net
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