Teenagers. Dating. Holding hands.

Murdering the objects of their affections …

A 20 year old man was convicted of stabbing and dismembering his girlfriend’s body in Indianapolis.

In Texas, a 15 year old girl was stabbed to death at school and an 18 year old girl was shot and killed there.

And these are not just rare, isolated cases.

As a result, communities are trying to raise awareness, among kids, their parents and their teachers, of the behaviors that should raise red flags.

Texas passed a law that defines dating violence within the school safety codes.

Rhode Island passed a law that mandates teaching seventh-graders through twelfth-graders about dating abuse.

New York recently made restraining orders available for the first time to teenagers who are victims of dating violence. Before this, victims’ only remedy was to press criminal charges.

Indianapolis is training police officers in schools to recognize warning signs of dating abuse, and older kids to act as dating mentors and advisors to younger kids.

According to surveys, dating violence has risen by about 40% since just 1999, and may victimize 10% of teens.

Experts believe that cell phones and the internet have facilitated harassing behaviors. Another survey suggests that twenty-five percent of teens have been harassed by a date.

Yet another survey suggests that one-third of teens have been victims of emotional abuse by a dating partner, if not physical abuse.

Dating abuse is also believed to spur drinking, suicides, aggression and sexual activity in teenagers.

And even among teens, dating violence and abuse is about exerting power and control in the relationship.

Talk to your kids about their dating habits and …

Read more in this New York Times article: A Rise in Efforts to Spot Abuse in Youth Dating.

International child custody cases can be costly.

But there’s costly and then there’s really costly.

Where does the line get drawn?

Well, one law firm, which has a satellite office here in Palm Beach county, found out the hard way.

After prevailing in an international child custody case, the firm sought to recover attorney’s fees from the losing opposing party.

The total bill it submitted for attorney’s fees weighed in at $163,000.

For what the presiding federal judge in Pennsylvania characterized as a “garden variety” custody case, with few legal or factual disputes.

The Court refused to stick the losing party with the price of the prevailing party’s individual choice to staff the matter with a team of five different attorneys, four of whom attended a three day trial.

The modest finances of the losing party, whom the court apparently felt acted wrongly but in good faith, may have played a role in the Court’s ruling.

Of course, the Court’s decision doesn’t mean that the prevailing party or their attorneys would do anything differently if they had to make their decisions all over again …

Read more in this Philadelphia Legal Intelligencer article: Federal Judge Critical of Firm’s Fee Petition in Custody Case.

Pennsylvania couple divorce.

Mother gets custody of young girls.

Then Mother stops sending girls to school.

Mother loses custody of girls.

Girls go into foster care.

Mother abducts the girls outside of their school in mid-October.

And brings them here to South Florida.

To live on the beach in a dug-out pit of sand.

Mother contacts Father, who is estranged from the rest of the family, out of the blue, seeking money, and informs him that they are in Florida.

The older of the girls is found alone, abandoned, at a shopping mall, begging for food.

Mother and younger girl are found.

Mother is arrested and charged with kidnapping, interfering with child custody and other felony charges.

Read more in this Philadelphia Inquirer article: Abducted girls lived in Fla. sand pit; mother sought

Ohio Mother and Father have affair and conceive Baby.

Relationship apparently breaks up.

After Baby’s birth, Mother leaves Baby at a church in June without Father’s knowledge.

This abandonment does not comply with Ohio’s safe havens laws.

Mother is charged with child endangerment.

Baby, and Mother’s three other children, are all placed in foster care.

DNA test later determines paternity of Father in November.

Father and his family want Baby with them.

Court orders visitation with Baby at Father’s home.

Court adopts plan for Father to have custody of Baby before Christmas, with final hearing to take place in January.

Read more in this Mansfield [OH] News Journal article: Dad wins custody of baby left in Bellville and this WFMD News article: Mother Of Abandoned Baby Charged.