The first time BaLeigh Harper attended a Teen Dating Violence Prevention Summit, she realized she was using a lot of bad words.

Not cuss words, but judgmental teenage slang that could hurt other people.

"I thought, 'Oh my gosh, these are words I use,' " she said.

Harper changed her vocabulary and now, four years later, she is among the teens who are taking the Teen Dating Violence Prevention message to their peers. The program is sponsored by Domestic and Sexual Violence Services of Carbon County.

The first Yellowstone County summit was held Thursday. About 50 students from Skyview, West, Shepherd, Broadview and Havre attended the daylong summit at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center. The fourth annual summit held Wednesday in Red Lodge drew around 130 students.

The program teaches kids about how media can feed misconceptions about gender roles. For example, advertisements can glorify sex, and music lyrics can exalt violence.

Gordon Brink, a senior at Roberts, said often kids "grow up in boxes of how you're supposed to be" based on media portrayals.

"That feeds misconceptions that feed violence and inequality," he said.

The session also covered self-defense and warning signs of dating violence. There were interactive presentations that encouraged kids to discuss words and images may be OK with them but may be offensive to others.

"We're not preaching at them, but they come to their own conclusions," said Lea Hegge, education coordinator with Domestic and Sexual Violence Services.

The summit includes peer leadership, so kids hear messages from kids.

Jessi Sherman, a junior at Fromberg, said the peer-to-peer approach works. Adults can give a lecture on what not to do and kids will do "exactly the opposite," she said.

Harper, a senior at Belfry, said it's her responsibility to share the violence prevention message.

"It's our generation that is going to change this," she said. "We've got this awesome opportunity in our generation to make a difference."

Carbon County youth leaders said they hope the program will grow in Yellowstone County schools as it has in theirs.

Although they are used to higher turnout at Carbon County summits, the teens said the kids at the Billings gathering were talkative and participated. Hopefully that means the kids will talk up the program and encourage more people to come next year.

The lessons are needed not only to educate students who may not see healthy relationships in their home lives, but to let those who have been in violent relationships know they aren't alone and that help is available.

In 2007, some 11 percent of Montana high school students reported their boyfriend or girlfriend had physically hurt them on purpose, and 10 percent reported they had been forced to have sexual intercourse when they did not want to, according to Domestic and Sexual Violence Services.

The organization received a rural Violence Against Woman Act grant and other donations to take the prevention message to all schools in Yellowstone County. It has partnered with Montana State University Billings, and five college students are helping deliver the program, which includes covering each school's sexual harassment policy and the topics presented at the summit.

"We need to go where the kids are," said Maria Martin, the prevention coordinator for Yellowstone County.

For more information or to request a presentation call the Domestic and Sexual Violence Services office in Red Lodge at 406-446-2296.