BALTIMORE — It is teen dating violence awareness month, and there’s a group of young people leading the charge to say enough is enough.
To spread the word a group of teenagers wrote, directed, and starred in a short film about teen dating violence.
“They can see that the teens are doing it and the teens don’t want us to do it each other," said James Pearson. who co-wrote the story. "They see the focus that no teen should do that to each other and no adult should do it either.”
The short film was directed by Jayquan Douglas.
“I’ve been video making ever since I was younger," Douglas said. "I always see films and study the way they shoot and all that stuff so it comes to me naturally.”
The video shares stats like 26 percent of women and 15 percent of men were victims of contact sexual violence, physical violence, and or stalking by a partner before the age of 18.
“You shouldn’t have to always resort to violence," said Perryion Harris. "You shouldn’t have to put your hands on a person or someone your in a relationship with because you can solve it a different way or communicate.”
Devin Jones lost her father to gun violence and she said that she will create her own nonprofit to help families who have lost loved ones to violence.
“You always have someone you basically talk to," said Jones. "Don’t be afraid to speak up."
Lisa Molock with Let’s Thrive Baltimore was doing a training with young people and they came up with the idea.
She partnered with the Baltimore City Health Department to give them the resources they need to do it.
“The youth wrote it they directed it they acted in it," said Molock. "They came up with an idea on how to bring awareness.”
They’ve seen these scenarios and they used their free time and energy to create this video to do something about it.
Younger Elder with Heart Smiles is a Coppin State student who was blown away by the young people's drive to spend their free time doing this.
“A lot of times youth are raised on violence, it’s inevitable that you are going to get in a relationship," said Elder. "Having violence and having violence in a relationship because it’s deadly. People can get hurt it causes trauma.”
