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| (Photo: mamiverse.com ) |
Today, in a county fairly near our home, the domestic partner of a young teacher who worked at the Middle School arrived there before she started working. He met her in the parking lot and proceeded to severely beat her around the face and head. Despite the man being in excess of 6 foot 6 inches tall and muscular, two teachers tried to pull him off her. They likely saved her life. The man ran, and the local sheriff arrived and had the woman transported to a trauma center where she remains in the hospital with severe head injuries. The man was later apprehended when he turned himself in after negotiating with the sheriff over his cell phone.
The news this evening tells us that the man had a restraining order against him, and had beaten, slapped or thrown his partner before. He is also thought to have stolen her handgun which is missing from her apartment. Since no one is permitted to have a concealed weapon in the vicinity of a school, the weapon would not have helped her, at least in the location where she was ultimately attacked.
I would like to take a moment to remind all women, and fathers and brothers of women, that most of the time, men (or sometimes even women) who physically abuse a partner, do have a history of either physical abuse, or of inappropriate controlling behavior prior to an event such as this. A man who controls your friends, loses his mind when you are twenty minutes late due to traffic, or a man who loses his mind when there is a slow driver in front of him, can evolve later into a man who kills his partner in a rage later.
Sadly, women are killed due to domestic abuse every day in the US. There are also women who shot and killed spouses and partners, and who kept prior abuse a secret and who now sit in a Virginia jail as a result. Teach your daughters to avoid a man who needs to control, and your sons to avoid such women. It's easier to step back earlier in these types of relationships than it is to extricate oneself by the time there is a clear and present danger of physical abuse, and potentially of being murderered.
As the economy slides, we are likely to see more of these sad situations as all of us are more stressed than we were prior, and those with these tendencies are more likely to act them out. Watch your friends, your sisters, and anyone else you believe may be at risk.
