PARIS – Samantha Rivers knows first-hand what it is like to be in an abusive relationship and she wants to share that knowledge with her classmates.

“I thought I was the only one,” said the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School junior class student who is organizing the school’s sexual assault awareness week at the end of this month as part of her work toward Girl Scout’s highest honor – the Gold Award.

Rivers, a member of Girl Scout Troop 1234 of Paris and a Paris resident, must complete 65 hours of work to earn the prestigious award.

Rivers began the project with a 25-question survey that she distributed to OHCHS students. The survey asked questions such as has your boyfriend ever lied to you or have you changed how you dress because of a relationship. She is compiling the information from approximately 200 surveys that were returned. Additionally, she is creating informational posters that will be placed around school and will bring into the school a professional performance concerning abuse in relationships.

Rivers said she wants young people to know the signs of an abusive relationship so they can take steps to stop one.

“I didn’t think I was in one,” said Rivers, who was in an abusive relationship in her ninth and tenth grade. “I always thought it was about hitting. It’s a lot more than that.”

Rivers said she was able to recognize how abusive her relationship was in part because of a program she saw in school that was presented by the Family Crisis Center in Portland. “The Jake and Caroline Play,” a skit about the dynamics of dating violence, was presented at OHCHS by the center’s Young Adult Abuse Prevention Program.

Rivers said she didn’t think anyone would understand what she was going through, but through programs such as the one presented in school and with the help of others, Rivers said she was able to get out of the relationship.

Now, in what she calls a wonderful seven-month relationship, Rivers says she knows the difference.

“I can just tell,” she says.

Rivers, who left for Costa Rica early Saturday morning with a group of students from her Spanish 3 class to help clean and rebuild a community in a drug-ravaged area, said she hopes her experience and the information she provides to other students will be helpful for her classmates.

“The project has to be something that will last,” she said.

Rivers has been in the Girl Scout program for the past 11 years. She’s also active in school athletics such as softball in the spring and soccer in the fall. She also works with the Big Brother/Big Sister program and is on the school Respect Team. After graduation she hopes to continue her studies and eventually work as a forensic scientist.