HONOLULU (HI)
KITV
July 12, 2018
By Moanike’ala Nabarro
Shame and secrecy: experts say that’s what sex abuse victims who survived molestation as children carry for years. A new law hopes to put an end to that.
“I was having a lot of dreams flashbacks. Yet I was a mom, I am a mom. I had to be healthy to take care of my own daughters,” June Johnson Cleghorn, child sex abuse survivor said.
It took Cleghorn 15 years to speak out about what happened to her during her days at Hawaii Preparatory Academy. Cleghorn says she was just 12 years old when her teacher started abusing her and it continued through her senior year in high school.
“It’s a long road that will be with me forever and that’s the most important thing I had to learn, was how to deal with that and not have it be in control of my life,” Cleghorn said.
A new law now gives survivors like June up until April of 2020 to consider filing a case in court. Hawaii’s courts have led the nation in permitting victims that remained silent for years a chance to come forward.
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