Abstract
<p>This paper introduces Disrupting the Domestic-to-Academic Abuse Relay (DAR), a framework for identifying and interrupting the point at which behavioral and relational patterns learned in domestic environments — including exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV), coercive control, or abusive discipline — are transmitted into school settings as bullying, aggression, or victimization. DAR draws on social learning theory, ecological systems theory, and research on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) to reframe this transmission using a relay-race metaphor: a series of discrete, observable "handoffs" at which intervention can interrupt the pattern before it advances to the next stage of a person's life. The paper extends DAR into a four-leg lifespan model, the Full Relay, tracing potential transmission from the domestic environment through school, adolescent and early-adult relationships, and adult relational outcomes. It further proposes human-animal co-regulation — grounded in existing human-animal interaction (HAI) research — as an underexamined protective factor, illustrated through a single-subject case observation. DAR is offered as a pedagogical and clinical tool: a vocabulary that makes an abstract risk trajectory visible and teachable to parents, educators, and clinicians.</p>