Assembly hearing spotlights teen dating violence, calls for school‑based prevention and digital safeguards

Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio, chair of the California State Assembly Select Committee on Domestic Violence, opened a committee hearing focused on teen dating violence after noting a homicide in her district: “we had a young woman, was murdered in December. A cheerleader was murdered by her boyfriend,” Rubio said, framing the meeting as a push for prevention and awareness.

Advocates who work directly with young people told the committee that technology has expanded avenues for coercive control. Janica Morin Pascual, a trainer who visits middle and high schools, said abusive partners increasingly use phones, social accounts and delivery apps to monitor and restrict teens: “it’s a way to have tracking devices,” she told the committee, describing cases in which gifts such as phones became tools…