Way to Go! Westhampton Beach student researches domestic violence

A Westhampton Beach High School student's research on domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic has been published in a prestigious science journal.

Morgan Donahoe, a senior, contributed her data-mining skills to a project in which she and a group of college students worked alongside Jaymie Meliker, a professor in the public health program at Stony Brook University. Donahoe was the sole high schooler involved in the project.

The research, which was published in BMC Public Health in December, investigated the volume of domestic violence calls to police in five major U.S. cities — Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Phoenix — after the start of the pandemic in 2020.

"People focused more on the masks and the stay-at-home orders, but do we really know what happened because of the stay-at-home orders?" said Donahoe, 17.

Donahoe's tasks involved searching computerized data and sending emails to obtain information about emergency calls to determine whether there was a correlation between stay-at-home orders and the volume of domestic violence reports.

"There was some contribution from the stay-at-home orders, but not in all cities," Donahoe said. "The issue is when people are stuck at home with the person who caused them the issue, it's harder to call."

Donahoe also participates in her school's Youth to Youth Club, is a volunteer with the Town of Southampton's Youth Court, and is a volunteer officer for the Westhampton Beach Junior Ambulance. In addition, she is a member of her school's National, Math, Foreign Language and Science honor societies.

— MICHAEL R. EBERT

By Michael R. Ebert

michael.ebert@newsday.com

Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.