RHODE ISLAND
The Good Men Project
By Steve LePore, Executive Director of 1in6, and Maile Zambuto, CEO of the Joyful Heart Foundation
The revelation last week about decades of unaddressed sexual abuse and assault at a New England school offers some important reminders about the power of community.
The voices of more than 40 men and women—all former students at St. George’s School, a prestigious boarding school in Middletown, Rhode Island—were represented at a press conference this week. They chronicled decades of sexual abuse by faculty and staff members of the school, as well as other students, and the school’s failure to take the allegations seriously.
Students place their trust in their teachers, coaches and mentors. The shame, secrecy, blame and/or fear that all survivors experience, can be even greater for children.
Having carried the weight of what was done to them alone, each of those St. George’s School alums first broke their silence about their experiences individually, and then within the embrace of a community of fellow survivors. Chances are that there are more—more survivors from the school who will add their voices, more people from across the country—world, even—who are reading about their stories and will think of their own experience. Tens of millions of men and women in the United States have been sexually abused before their 18th birthday. Not one of the 1 in 4 women and the 1 in every 6 men who have had that experience should ever have to feel alone again.
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