Survivor Story

Seventh-grade teacher, grooming, guilt for feeling special, backlash… no one to talk to – very small town...still can't talk about it over 50 years later. He continued with more people – selecting a new person regularly. He did finally pick someone who spoke up and he went to jail. Unfortunately I believe it was a pass the trash situation. He had ended up changing schools and probably targeting new people. Do I believe he stopped? No. Am I comfortable with the outcome – not really, but I still feel the embarrassment of feeling for a moment that I was special – not a victim. There is conflict there – but a 13-year-old doesn’t know that and feels “grown up.” Most days I don’t think about it and leave it in the past. But there are times when I would like to tell the teachers who did not investigate further when no one answered the locked classroom doors (a hand was over my mouth). Since I appeared to not be where I was supposed to be, I was punished but still understood that I was not supposed to talk. Was I an over-watchful parent? Yes.

-Name Withheld