By the time Daje Shelton of St. Louis was 17, she鈥檇 already lost lots of friends to gun violence. One was shot while waiting at a bus stop, another while walking to the store.
Shelton had few outlets for expressing her grief and coping with emotions about that trauma. In her world, fighting, not talking, was a typical way to address conflict. After one fight, she was expelled from high school.
A documentary film captures her struggle. 鈥淔or Ahkeem鈥� opens with Shelton in a courtroom, where St. Louis Circuit Judge Jimmie Edwards gives her a last chance to graduate, from St. Louis'
The St. Louis court system oversees the unique school, dedicated to the education and rehabilitation of delinquent teens. In our latest , we talk with Shelton and filmmaker Jeff Truesdell about the teenager鈥檚 efforts to negotiate school, friends鈥� deaths and an unexpected pregnancy.
runs through Oct. 19 at .
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