Teens learn about domestic violence

TAMPA - For a high-school couple who just started dating a few months ago, a domestic violence seminar may seem an odd date.

But for Melissa Shepard and Josh Soto, it sort of makes sense.

"I didn't really want to be put in that situation but it happened," Shepard said of her last relationship.

Shepard, 16, and Soto, 17, met at lunch during a period of Shepard's life that changed everything.

"Isaiah," is her son's name. "He's two months," she explained.

Shepard is a teen mom raising her son without his dad. Soto is a young man who says his dad didn't care to stick around.

"It hurts because my dad wasn't there half of the time for me," Soto said. "I don't want [Isaiah] to grow up the same way I did."

Two teens, each with a past laced with pain, are exactly the kind of couple a new teen dating ad campaign hopes to target.

"If one girl walks away saying, 'I'm not doing this anymore,' then we've done our job," said Brenda Rouse of The Spring.  "Hopefully it will be many, many more."

The "I Own Me" campaign, launched this week, teaches teens to respect boundaries.

More than 100 Hillsborough County High School students filled a conference room in South Tampa on Wednesday for an introduction. The central lesson of the campaign is that teens may own a lot -- their cell phones, computers -- but most importantly, they own their bodies.

"I just don't want to fall into that category. I don't want to be abused. I don't want him to be abused. I just want to be happy," Shepard said.

And it's not just young women who took notice Wednesday morning, at least one man did too.

"I don't want it to happen to her. I don't want anything like that, of that nature, to come between us," Soto said.

Because it's not just two futures at stake anymore -- it's three.

"He's my whole life and I love him," Shepard said of Isaiah.