PORTLAND — Gov. Paul LePage told members of the Cheverus High School championship football team this morning that it would be up to them — and other young men — to end domestic violence.

In a library in the high school’s Loyola Hall, LePage told the team’s 35 or so underclassmen about his father’s abuse when he was a child and other incidents of domestic violence he has witnessed, including hearing a man beat his 2-year-old son in a Marden’s store bathroom.

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Gov. Paul LePage speaks with Cheverus High School students about domestic violence today in a library in the high school's Loyola Hall. Shawn Patrick Ouellette / Staff Photographer

Gov. Paul LePage speaks with Cheverus High School students today. LePage planned to speak again at a public forum tonight from 5:30 to 7 at Cheverus. Shawn Patrick Ouellette / Staff Photographer

“You and I have to beat this problem by making it socially unacceptable,” he said.

The team, which visited LePage at the Blaine House this winter, signed a petition this morning in support of the governor’s efforts to end domestic violence.

LePage planned to speak at an all-school assembly this afternoon and again at a public forum tonight from 5:30 to 7 at Cheverus.

Joining LePage on a panel at the forum tonight are Public Safety Commissioner John Morris, York County District Attorney Kathryn Slattery, Maine State Police Major Chris Grotton, Carlin Whitehouse of Family Crisis Services, and Julia Colpitts, executive director of the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence.