Usually, tabloid stories about troubled relationships drive me batty, but the unfolding drama with Chris Brown and Rihanna has my permission to linger - even after photographs are confirmed, endorsement deals are dropped, and publicists stop issuing apologies. After all, it might just take a few more weeks for young kids to understand it.
As it turns out, it's not just gossip-blog addicts who have been following the high-profile couple's drama - it's also kids. Very young kids.
Nick Shiggs-Quiroga, a third-grade teacher at Neighborhood House Charter School in Dorchester, told me that his students have strong opinions about Brown's reported assault on his girl-friend, Rihanna. Since early February, when Brown supposedly injured the "Umbrella" singer, Shiggs-Quiroga's youngsters have discussed what might have happened and what Rihanna might have done to make her boyfriend so angry. They repeat what they hear on TV and what their parents have said at home.
In many cases, the children don't understand the severity of the domestic dispute. Some of them side with Brown.
"That was the first thing I started hearing - excuses," said Shiggs-Quiroga, 28, who has been teaching for five years. "The same girl who brought it up had said to me . . . 'If he did that to me, I would bail him out.' I said, 'Really?' I was like, 'Oh my God. How am I going to have this talk now?' "
Worth noting is that the same 8-year-old told her teacher that Brown had reason to hit Rihanna because she gave him an STD. That made Shiggs-Quiroga's head spin.
The young girl said, "I heard she gave him - diabetes!"
OK, so 8-year-olds don't know everything. Still, they're not too young to be a part of a conversation about abuse in relationships. According to Casey Corcoran, who has been tapped by the Boston Public Health Commission to lead a program for teens about healthy relationships, kids should be talking about appropriate behavior in friendships and couples as soon as they enter school. He tells me it's easier for children to understand violence if they've talked about it before they hear of an incident or, in the worst-case scenario, become a part of one. They should know the rules before they're old enough to be in a romantic relationship.
"We wouldn't start teaching math in fifth grade or reading in eighth grade," Corcoran said. "People would think we were crazy. We start in kindergarten."
Some parents, he adds, believe violence is a teen issue or that their children are immune to pop culture. "What I've found in particular about this case, when I talk to young people . . . they give me kind of the rough outline of what happened," he said. "But when I dig deeper they really thought about it a lot."
Because the Brown-Rihanna incident may be the most high-profile example of teen dating violence ever (Rihanna is 21, but Brown is still 19), Corcoran says, the city plans to interview city youths about the case to help determine local perceptions of domestic and dating violence among young people. Interviews should begin within the next few weeks.
Miguel Quinones, 30, who works near Shiggs-Quiroga at a Dorchester community center, says he's happy to keep the Brown-Rihanna issue alive, as long as children in his program are captivated by it. Last week, during school vacation, a male student who was becoming aggressive during an activity wound up falling on top of a female student. When Quinones talked to the kids about why there's no need to lay your hands on anyone else, it evolved into a discussion about Brown and Rihanna.
Quinones said his younger students, some of whom are 5, didn't understand the discussion of domestic disputes, but at the very least they understood that Brown was being punished for doing something bad.
"He was supposed to sing at the [NBA] All-Star game," Quinones said. "We talked about how when you act out or get out of character in some way, you lose opportunity. At least now the children know there's a consequence."
Not much of a silver lining for a terrible situation, but it's something.
Meredith Goldstein can be reached at mgoldstein@globe.com. You can read her daily Love Letters dispatch and chat with her every Wednesday at 1 p.m. at www.boston.com/loveletters. 
