CALUMET CITY | When musician Chris Brown made headlines after he was accused of choking Rihanna, his girlfriend and also a musician, the reaction left some local domestic violence experts gasping.

Barbara Keaton said she was shocked when she heard people asking, "What did (Rihanna) do?" Keaton is an author and supporter of the Christian Community Health Center in Dolton and Amani House domestic violence shelter in Chicago.

Keaton and a panel of experts expressed their views on celebrities and domestic violence during a town hall discussion Friday at Higher Ground Community Church in Calumet City. She said the panel wanted to take advantage of the spotlight to open up a dialogue on a problem that often exists in silence.

Bessie Hitchcock, a Munster resident and president of Each One Reach One Child Inc., lost her daughter, 19-year-old Yolanda Hitchcock, to domestic violence in 1995 in Chicago. Her daughter tried to end a relationship with a man, and he started stalking her, broke into her house and strangled her.

"I walked in my house from work and there she was on the bedroom floor," she said. "You move on as best you can."

She later learned the man who killed her daughter came from a family with a history of domestic problems. Children growing up with domestic violence often fall into repeating the cycle and can emulate what they see.

"Even if he talks about hitting you or raises his hand, you tell somebody," Hitchcock said.

Domestic violence is like a disease, Keaton said

"Domestic violence crosses every social, racial, cultural denomination, everybody from the rich to the extremely poor," she said.

Parents should use the media attention on Brown and Rihanna as an opportunity to talk to their children about domestic violence, Hitchcock said.

"They look up to stars and respect them," she said. "We have to teach our children that's not the way to live."

About a dozen people attended the discussion, including Kayla Weir, 19, of South Holland. Weir broke off an abusive relationship about a year ago. She was looking for love, she said, but her ex-boyfriend began exhibiting warning signs of abuse.

"He would act like he was playing," but it didn't feel like he was playing, she said. "He would play like he was choking me.

"This guy was cool at first and after a while started to be controlling. I went to my mom, and we prayed, and she told me, 'If you feel like it's (the start of) abuse, you need to leave him alone before it gets worse,' and I got out."