Grant attacks teen dating violence

AUSTIN (KXAN) - In a small room of the Yarbrough'nem Recording Studio in East Austin, four young friends crowd around the microphone.

The hip-hop beat punctuates the room and the voices launch into a passionate musical prayer.

"Instead of knocking you down, he should be picking you up," sing the Public Offenders. "She's not in prison, why are you knocking her down?"

The song is aimed at a victim of teenage dating violence. It is a subject the members of the rap group know well. In March 2003, Ortralla Mosely, one of their best friends was stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend at Reagan High School.

"It was a weird day," said Public Defenders member Yoli Zapata. "I was in a strange place. Everything was kind of going in slow motion."

Ortralla's mother, Carolyn Mosely, stayed close to her daughters friends as the difficult days dragged on in the murder's aftermath. Carolyn, though, prefers another name.

"God named me, Mother, when my children was born," she said. "I don't have the name, Carolyn, anymore. When I had my children, I got a new name. It's called, Mother. And I'm going to wear that name, not just for mine, but for yours and everybody else's."

Her goal is simply to protect children and help them grow strong.

"Trella recognized the hurting process," she said, "because her mother, me, I was an abused person by my mother, by men, by different people in my life. I've been raped; I've been through a lot of different things. Trella was educated. She knew. She did what she was supposed to do."

Zapata agrees.

"Trella did express some feelings that she did fear for herself and we did go up to the appropriate people and we did tell them, 'Hey,'" she said. "And it was like, 'Well, we have to have the evidence.'"

Mosely has worked tirelessly since 2003 to change that reality.

"Now we have House Bill 121 that has passed in law that says that we have to now teach a curriculum in school to show the red flags, how we should approach the situation, how we should get the child out," she said. "All of these steps were not taking place when Trella was needing help."

The Public Offenders have been part of that change, as well. They have toured the country, offering up their hip-hop testimony to young people who face the dangers of teenage dating and the adults who hold in their hands the power to help.

From 6 to 8 p.m., Feb. 1, they will participate in the Start Strong Initiative's kick-off program for the Teen Dating Violence Prevention and Awareness Month. Several local agencies are working together under the Start Strong Initiative banner using a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Austin is one of only 12 cities across the nation to receive the money.

"We want young people to question, you know, and to think about what are my standards for relationships, my expectations," said Start Strong director Barbara Ball. "What is the difference between a healthy or an unhealthy, disrespectful, abusive relationship."

Back in the studio, the Public Offenders sing, "I'm not in prison."

The beat has the strength, they hope, to break the chains of violence in dating relationships.

Mother Mosely is sure of it.

"It's showing other children that you can pass abuse and make something of yourself," she said. "You choose today what your tomorrow will be."