What remarkable courage and selflessness two of our community’s young women have displayed in sharing their stories of abuse on YouTube! [Longtime Fenwick teacher accused of misconduct, News, April 6]
I am hoping that, for a moment, we as a community can pause to honor their stories, their pain, and most importantly their commitment to turning their suffering into a call to action to prevent any more children from being harmed by their alleged abuser.
So thank you, Ms. Quinn-Pasin. Thank you, Ms. Seavey. Know that you have done no small thing and that your self-sacrifice will have long-lasting benefits for the multitude of other victims who suffer in silence having not yet found their own voices.
Currently, the most under-reported crimes in our country are sexual violence, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment. The tragic reasons for this underreporting are clearly recounted by these articulate young women (and also by brave respondents on YouTube): When victims report their abuse, more often than not they themselves suffer more consequences than their abuser. They are not believed, they are bullied, often publicly shamed, and they are subjected to the trauma of recounting their stories over and over to authority figures who display disbelief and even contempt for their reporting.
And while it should be unthinkable, their abuser is allowed to continue to intimidate them without any retribution. This whole process is called re-victimization. Its consequences are lifelong and...
A front-page article with the byline of veteran New York Times opinion writer Nicholas Kristof is the latest poisonous example of what I call the NGO “halo effect.” Headlined “The Silence That Mee...