'Precious' The Movie: Detroit Denby High School Students and Staff react to film screening
 

By Karen H. Samuels/Tell Us Detroit

DETROIT (Tell Us Det) - Those are the words of Claireece Precious Jones from the opening paragraph of “Push” a novel by Sapphire, and now a major motion picture. Precious, the unflinching tale of a sexually abused Harlem teenager may be a difficult story to experience, and yet a visionary school principal in Detroit decided girls at Denby High School should see the film. Such an undertaking is, in and of itself remarkable, and a chronicle of courage, spirit and lessons learned.

Tell Us Detroit paid a visit to Denby High School on the city’s eastside to meet the educators who planned and carried out an amazing field trip that took 400 young women to see the movie Precious. Led by Principal Kenyetta Wilbourn-Snapp, with the support of school Social Worker Tracie McKissic and her Teen Mentors, we discovered that sexual abuse is a reality endured by too many female students at Denby and yet these same young women saw triumph in the story of Precious.

The Principal
Kenyetta Wilbourn-Snapp is new to Denby High, becoming principal only this year, is one of the youngest in the district and known to be all business. Wilbourn-Snapp heard about the movie, did research on the book “Push” and made a connection. She said realizing the struggles young ladies encounter every day and trying to find a way to tap into their social and emotional growth of students, prompted her into action. Contacting the school Social Worker to gain some insight, she found agreement that seeing Precious could be a learning experience. Wilbourn-Snapp said “From there we took the risk and endeavored to make it happen”.

Post-movie, Principal Wilbourn-Snapp said “Social workers, staff and teen mentors have been available to embrace the young ladies in a sisterly way to make it okay to have a conversation, to be able to support them and offer a shoulder to lean on for those students who have been victims of abuse”. She credits school social worker, Tracie McKissic with pulling it all together.

The Social Worker
The opportunity to preview the film was a godsend says Tracie McKissic, “ The Lionsgate corporation (distributor of Precious) sent through Allied, free tickets to our Social Work Department”. This gave 40 social workers the opportunity to preview the film along with the Social Work Director Brown and school community partner Better Detroit Youth Movement. After the preview, Denby’s principal and McKissic had the foresight to make advance preparation for the Teen Mentors who were expected to assist their friends who might unveil personal stories and wounds that have never been shared.

The mentor’s reaction to the preview was emotional, and revealed the need for another step in the process of preparing Denby girls to see Precious. At the Principal’s suggestion McKissic organized a school assembly with all the girls to reinforce that the field trip was a learning experience, that certain behavior would be inappropriate and to expect intense profane storytelling of abuse.

McKissic found the movie’s scenes of sexual and verbal abuse to be shocking and powerful, but said ‘The main idea was the triumphant ending, how this child persevered, how she was illiterate, how she learned to read, how she was able to establish relationships.” The film’s depiction of the year of therapy required for Precious to gain self confidence and to realize the truth of her situation along with the teacher’s role of pushing Precious to find her voice, struck a chord with McKissic who said, “This is what we are trying to do here at Denby, that is what Miss Wilbourn is doing; pushing students to take a risk, to learn and to grow and do more than we think we can.”

To address the needs of the girls following the movie, McKissic said a post film assembly was held. Social workers were brought in to lend support, including Angie Gardner laid off in October who felt strongly enough about helping the girls process what they saw, that she volunteered her time. From the community McKissic brought in resources from the Horizon Project at Wayne State and the Children’s Center to talk about healthy relationships, HIV AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.

All the support resources worked to get conversations started with the girls including Talk Time, an existing program that allows girls to come into Denby’s library to discuss issues on their mind. The dialogue and support will continue until the end of the school year. The support is very necessary, according to McKissic discussion of sexual abuse is swept under the carpet in the African American community despite its prevalence and silent threat to the lives of young girls and boys.



Meet the Denby Teen Mentors
“Helping others makes you feel like a better person” says Shianne Johnson, one of the Denby Teen Mentors who sat down with Tell Us Detroit to talk about the movie and how they supported their classmates who had similar experiences and were still coming out with their stories. During the post-movie school assembly, Kiara May said girls were crying, in need of emotional support “I was giving love, saying hug me, I’m a mentor you don’t have to be alone by yourself. If you don’t have any friend, I’ll be your friend”. In the end, “Precious is a girl you can look up to” said Treva Copeland because she overcame low-esteem and abuse. Maiya Dalton says seeing the movie helped her as a mentor and will help others better understand what someone like Precious is going through. A couple of words of motivation a day” Dalton says can help someone strive to be the best they can be.

The mentors were in agreement that all girls should see the movie, whether they are black or white because so many women are going through the predicament as Precious. But by the end, Kiara said Precious had an epiphany “I can continue to stay here and let my Mother do this to me or I can be a better Mother for my kids, and that’s what she did.”

The Teen Mentors of Denby have a spirit, and determination that is truly a ray of hope. And so we asked them: What makes you precious?

• Kiara May: “My positive attitude towards life. I wake up saying okay, you know what my hair isn’t the way I want it to be or my clothes may not be the way I want, but I’m going just be positive and stay positive because there are a lot of negative people who can just bring you down, and take you away from where you want to be in life, and push you away from your goals.”


• Mayia Dalton: “My individualism. I believe that I am a motivating person and I don’t really focus on negativity. I stay positive, a lot times people push negative things my way but I set them aside. I motivate myself to do things; I’m always caring, there for others. For me, being who I am, and a caring individual that’s what makes me Precious”.


• Treva Copeland: “My determination and my strong will. I feel like no matter what is, if I say I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it...I’m a very outgoing person and I’m going to speak my mind regardless of the situation...I am me that’s it, can’t nobody be like me, ain’t no other replica of me, you may have my name but you ain’t gonna have my swagger!”



• Shianne Johnson: “My ability to help people, I feel if good if I help somebody. If I see somebody who drops their books I’m there to pick it up. If I see somebody needs help carrying something, I’m there to help them carry it. I’m just the type of person who always likes helping people it makes me feel better.



When asked about the boys at Denby, McKissic chuckled and said they were very upset about not being able to go but had their own activities including Talk Time with male mentors. They learn basic coping skills of life, problem solving, communications, looking someone in the eye when speaking, simple things McKissic says that make a big difference.

Principal Wilbourn-Snapp says the Precious film project is just the beginning of being able to tap into the emotional growth of students “This is the just the tipping point of what we plan to do here at Denby” Next up: “Taking young men to camping without cell phones and giving them the opportunity to breathe free air and to bond.”