Hood College in Frederick will be hosting a domestic violence summit. "Into the Light" will take place from 8:00 AM until 4:00 PM at Rosenstock Hall.

"Our theme is basically 'Domestic Violence: Where Do We Go From Here,'" says Teresa Bean, Assistant State's Attorney with the Frederick County State's Attorney's Office. She says the featured speaker this year will be Michaele Cohen, the Executive Director of the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence.

After Cohen speaks, there will be several break-out sessions dealing with such topics as dating violence, meeting the needs of victims and their abusers, domestic violence among senior citizens and domestic violence in the military.

After lunch, participants will hear from author Brenda Thomas, who wrote a book about her experiences as a victim of domestic violence entitled "Laying Down My Burdens." "She's appeared on CNN, 'Dateline,' 'E True Hollywood Story,'" says Bean.

This is the 10th year for "Into The Light."

Over the years, domestic violence has received more attention in that abusers can be arrested and charged, and victims no longer need to suffer in silence. But Bean says more needs to be done to change attitudes. "The question should not be 'Why does she stay,'" she says. "The question needs to be 'Why does he beat her?' And I use the term 'he' because most domestic violence cases are male upon female violence."

Bean says the attention in domestic violence cases should be focused on the abuser. "She {the victim} stays for many reasons. One of them is 'look, I love him. I just want the violence to stop,'" says Bean.

Bean says anyone can attend "Into the Light." Admission is free, but attendees are urged to sign up ahead of time. They can do that by going to www.hood.edu. "We have students. We have educators. We have people in the health care community; attorneys; victim advocates. Anyone whose interested in domestic violence we want there," she says.