Women are far from defenseless! I did say it's ungentlemanly and stupid for a man to strike a woman.  Is that what you mean by "putting women on a pedestal?  In fact I don't hit men either.  So that's a little equality.

Stalking is by definition, obsessive behavior.  If the woman hurt the dude, he certainly could have walked away and forgot about her, provided he was reasonably smart, emotionally healthy, and well brought up.

Determining why they were in conflict?  That's for a marriage counselor helping two committed partners to reconcile, not for two kids who just broke up.  They were teens, just learning about intimacy and commitment.  What needed to happen was that the boy's friends tell the police that someone has a new assault weapon and is planning to kill a lot of people with it, at such a place and such a time.  That is what the editor was writing about.