PENNSYLVANIA
The Intelligencer
By Jo Ciavaglia, staff writer
On a November day in 2014, Carole Trickett had just spent an hour testifying before a grand jury about a part of her childhood she spent most of her 79 years trying to put out of her mind, when a Bucks County prosecutor posed one last question to the 1954 Solebury School graduate.
How did she think the alleged sex abuse she experienced as a child at the hands of one of the school’s founders affected her life?
The Maine resident answered, but only after she took two minutes to compose herself, she said during a recent phone interview. She doesn’t recall her exact answer, but does remember the question left her astonished.
“They need to understand this is not just having your appendix out. It’s affected me in many ways,” said Trickett. “It doesn’t go away.”
While the painful memories of child sex abuse don’t expire, time limits for victims to take court action against their abusers does.
For example, only one of the reportedly dozens of alleged sex abuse victims over decades at Solebury School, a private boarding school, falls within the legal time frames for pursuing criminal and civil action, according to sources close to the now 18-month-old grand jury investigation.
Trickett and others want to see that changed. It’s why she will appear, along with other alleged Solebury School sex abuse victims and statute of limitations reform supporters, at the Pennsylvania Capitol on Wednesday for an event to bring attention to proposed legislation that would extend — in some cases eliminate — those time limits.
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