Boston Globe 7/7/11: Teenagers unaware of how to confront dating violence. When Keisha Ormond talks to high school students about dating violence, she starts by asking them whether they have ever been in a verbally or physically abusive relationship or known someone who has. Time and again, the response is the same.

“More than half raise their hands,” said Ormond, who works with area teenagers through a Roxbury-based dating and domestic violence program. “They know what dating violence is, and they know what it looks like. But they often don’t know what to do about it.”

The horrific slaying of an 18-year-old woman in Wayland – allegedly at the hands of her former boyfriend, a high school classmate who is accused of strangling her, slashing her throat, and dumping her in a marsh – may represent the most extreme expression of a deep-rooted problem, those who work with teenagers say.

While details of the couple’s three-year relationship remain murky, specialists say that adolescents cope with emotional and, in severe cases, physical abuse more often than many adults may realize.