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Local mom uses daughter's murder to talk to teens about healthy relationships

A local mom has dedicated her life to teaching teenagers about healthy relationships through a foundation in her daughter's memory: The Lakeisha Brown Foundation.

Lakeisha Brown was just 18 years old when her boyfriend shot her.

Her mom tried to intervene long before that deadly encounter: she spoke to his parents and even got the police involved; but instead of the abuse stopping - her daughter just stopped talking about it.

She was hiding a dangerous secret that one day would take her life, but her mom had a secret of her own.

“I, myself, at the time of my daughter going through that, I was going through an abusive marriage,” explained Mignon Brown-Anderson.

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Anderson tried to save her daughter from the same pain, realizing later, the cycle of abuse extended to her own mother and grandmother.

Now, she has dedicated her life to teaching teenagers about healthy relationships through a foundation in her daughter’s memory: The Lakeisha Brown Foundation.

“Around the county 1.5 million teens are abused yearly and it starts at the age of 13,” she said.

That’s why so many advocates like Brown-Anderson and Becky Lee with her Men of Code program at area high schools including Ballou in D.C, are working to reverse the cycle of violence in high school relationships and get teens to start talking to their parents and to each other.

“There are no winners in domestic violence. So the victim and the abuser need help and sometimes the abuser is your friend so if you see something you have to say something; and with a victim you have to always show them love. Let them know I’m here for you whatever you decide I’m here for you," she said.

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