Teens and domestic violence laws in and out of school

Linda Purrington (lpurring@earthlink.net)
Tue, 21 Jul 1998 12:09:02 -0700


Is there a distinction between fact and law? (Perhaps between social
reality and law, but is it pertinent here?) And when you say,
"restrictions apply" what restrictions exactly do you mean? Do you mean
that the restrictions are on the person who shares a child? But domestic
violence laws apply to people who share children. What restrictions do
you believe apply to people in a courtship or engagement? There are
domestic violence laws that cover all these categories in CA. What
restrictions do you think apply to people one of whom is over 18?
TROs (temporary restraining orders) are crucial elements in
establishing the procedure and trail of evidence reports that lead to
police action. It is very important that teens--and their parents--be
encouraged to apply for TROs, so that they can call on the larger police
protections then available. When schools have clear notice that a
domestic violence situation is building within the school, the school
also has distinct duties. A police report cannot be ignored with as
great impunity as a report by a child. And I strongly suggest that
concerned parents, administrators, and educators contact their local
rape crisis centers, who have daily, hands-on court experience in
dealing with these new domestic violence laws.
Linda Purrington
Title IX Advocates
lpurring@earthlink.net

Nan Stein wrote:
>
> In fact and in law, there are only 13 states in which
> non-co-habitating minors are protected by domestic violence laws (MAss, NH,AL,
> AK, CA, CO, IL, MN, NM, ND, OK, PA, & WV). Even in those 13 states,
> restrictions apply: sharing a child; courtship, engagment, one person being
> over the age of 18, etc. Generally those protections are restricted to
> eligibility for temporary restraining orders (also called "orders of
> protections" or "stay away" orders).
>
> For further, deeper and a more accurate understanding of this issue,
> I suggest you all read an article by Prof. Roger Levesque (teaches at
> Indiana University - he is both a lawyer and a Ph.D.), published in 1997, in
> the Virginia Journal of Social Policy and Law (4 (2), pp. 339-397, called
> "Dating violence, adolescents and the law." His was the only article I could
> find on this subject and the only research on this problem (and I searched
> far and wide - including the Justice Dept, the national resource center on
> DV, etc) when I was writing a paper on "sexual harassment and sexual
> violence in schools" (commissioned by the Justice Dept, Office of Juv.
> Justice and Deliq Prevention - copies are not available yet - maybe by the
> late fall).
>


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