Shapiro deserves praise and thanks - not brickbats - for grand jury report | Opinion

By Jennifer Storm
Penn Live
August 27, 2018

https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2018/08/response_to_published_opinion.html

These are unprecedented times. Not because there were no victims within the church before today.

Not because there were no cover-ups, bribes, threats, secret marriages and divorces, private stashes of child pornography, golden crosses used to mark children who had already been groomed.

Because today, we stand with these courageous survivors. Today, we don't "play it safe" as Richard Lavinthal would have us do in his recent op-Ed for PennLive.

Today, the words of the grand jury ring around the world and shatter the darkness with the light of truth. Today, we are proud to be Pennsylvanians led forward in the fight for justice by our citizens, by our communities, by our Attorney General and his office.

Attempting to misrepresent or distract from the true purpose and message of last week's media release is a tried and true method of further silencing survivors. And we say no.

The "production" as Lavinthal called it was a carefully and thoughtfully constructed press conference to ensure the survivors were literally center stage, which is exactly where they requested to be.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro and his staff have spent years working with these victims, have met with them frequently, have answered calls in the middle of the night to ease anxieties.

The video that played leading up to the survivors taking the state was an opportunity for the public to finally hear from the survivors themselves who were not in a position to take to a podium and speak but wanted their experiences heard in their own voices.

Those of us who have experienced or studied trauma know that there are countless reasons why survivors don't come forward or wait to disclose.

1. Perpetrators, or their supporters, will undermine the victim's integrity or impugn their character.

2. Predators groom entire communities, such as congregations and members of the media, for years to rally behind them, ostracizing the victim.

3. Continued contact with a perpetrator is incredibly common, sometimes due to disorientation or disbelief by the victim brought on by trauma. Other times, they simply have no choice but to remain in contact, such as a family bond within a church.

4. Coming forward could cost the victim their support network, among other things.

5. Some victims isolate or suppress their memories as a way to cope. Often, the memories will resurface decades later.

These are only some of the many reasons why people so often choose not to come forward. In many specific cases cited within the grand jury report, evidence showed that survivors were silenced by "gag orders" or non-disclosure agreements that they were pressured to sign.

Some survivors fell subject to these restrictions, not by their own choice, but through choices made on their behalf by their parents when they were children.

Additionally, almost every survivor was held back from justice by the current statue of limitations in Pennsylvania.

What could not, what cannot, and what will not ever again be taken away from them is their truth. The survivors that took the state last week embraced their right to choose what happens with their story, what happens with their life. They did not choose what happened to them before, but as a community, we *must* support their right to choose today.

We commend Shapiro, the members of the grand jury, and every citizen who is taking the time to reflect and to support these valiant survivors.

And we humbly thank every survivor who came forward to testify, who bore witness within the walls of our state Capitol during the news conference, and who took the stage to face the world with their truth.

As we look to the immediate future, we urge all Pennsylvania citizens to contact their respective legislators and ask them to remove the arbitrary time barrier within our law by eliminating the statute of limitations and opening a window for previously time barred victims to seek justice through our legal system.

Need help finding your legislator? Check here.