When St. Mary's Academy freshmen Dallas Jessup and Catherine Wehage began school in the fall of 2005, they quickly learned that the all-girls preparatory school had lofty expectations of its students, including a clear call to service. Considering this call to service, personal experience, dangerous societal trends, and individual contacts, the young women decided to create a video for other girls (aged 11-19) about how to escape predators and date rape situations. Titled Just Yell Fire, filming begins on the video June 17th, with cameo endorsements from ABC hit drama Lost stars Evangeline Lilly and Josh Holloway.
Inspiration for the video came from Jessup’s research of criminal statistics, finding that one in four girls presently in middle or high school will be date-raped before they graduate from college. “That means that in our school of 600 students, 150 will be date raped before they get out of college,” Jessup says. “We need to change that.” A black belt in Tae Kwon Do, Jessup is trained in Filipino Street Fighting, as is Wehage. They approached their coach, Chad Von Dette, to garner quick-to-learn strategies any teenage girl could use to escape an attacker. Just Yell Fire came from these discussions – yelling FIRE! immediately captures people’s attention and is easy to remember.
The video script includes endorsements by Lilly and Monaghan, simulated abduction scenes, detailed instruction by Von Dette and Dallas, a Dating Bill of Rights, a “talk show” format of 50 young women asking questions, and wise advice from Von Dette for teenage girls. The intent of the film is to be distributed nationwide at no cost to the receiver.
Because there is virtually nothing currently available to educate young women, the envisioned 20-25 minute film has a multitude of supporters. Seventeen and Cosmo Girl have committed to articles about the video and Apple and Netflix are interested in posting a download link on their web sites. Clackamas Community College has donated facilities and script advice, award-winning photographer Ed Henry will film, internationally acclaimed director Takafumi Uehara will direct, and the San Diego Women’s Center and Police Department of Vancouver have been strong endorsers, as well.
All of the hard work Jessup and Wehage have been doing is helping them with another goal: to earn the St. Mary’s service cord when they graduate – meaning completing at least 160 hours of community service in their four years of high school. “I think we’ll have at least 160 hours of time when the video is complete,” says Jessup. At the rate things are going, they’ll have many more than that!
Founded in 1859 by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, St. Mary’s Academy of Portland, is Oregon’s oldest continuously operating secondary school and one of 716 all-female schools in the country. The student body represents a diverse background of young women from over 30 urban, suburban, and rural communities in Oregon and Southwest Washington. St. Mary’s Academy is distinguished by its development of the whole person, and is the only school in the state to receive three U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Schools awards.
