![]() When I I testified in court, I laid myself bare. Nobody chose to fixate on the actions of these boys they chose to fixate on the inaction of myself under trauma and duress. ![]() Instead, people wanted to focus on how the anonymous 15-year-old victim was quivering in the courtroom, how she’s a naive, preppy girl. The fact that those types of things didn’t catch much traction in the media really frustrated me. They read a message saying that “I feign intimacy then stab girls in the back and throw their bodies in dumpsters.” All of those kids testified that day to the same definitions of things like “senior salute,” “scoring,” and “hooking up.” But having to be in and hear everything for the first time - how had been targeting me since basically the winter or late fall, about the way spoke about me and other girls. Paul’s students who were going to testify as witnesses were. While we were there, we saw a room across the hall from us in which all of the current and past St. My mom and my older sister weren’t allowed to be in the courtroom because they were being held as witnesses, but my family and I were given a room in the courthouse where we could recoup and stay together. They framed that as being “respectful” of my privacy, but basically just ignored the problem, hoping it would go away, and that my loyalty to the school rang true. Paul’s administration assured me and my family that nobody would talk about it, nobody would know it’s me. We want to give you the space and time you need to tell us. Their response was to say, “Chessy, we know something is going on. Nobody knew what was going on except for my teachers and some of my friends. The defense actually pushed the trial back from the summer they kept delaying and, in doing so, chose my first day of my junior year of high school as the start date of the trial. Paul’s school in December of my sophomore year, so I was at my school in Florida. I just have to excuse myself and run to the toilet and throw up. Even now it has become a side effect of my anxiety. Then I’d wake up the next morning and throw up again.ĭuring the day I’d be constantly dry heaving over garbage cans. I would wake up in the morning, violently throw up, not be able to eat anything until dinner that night when I would shove a shit ton of food in my mouth out of exhaustion and hunger. It not only wrecked me emotionally, but it also wrecked me physically. Going through the trial was probably the hardest two weeks of my life. What was the process of going through that trial like? Then it became The State of New Hampshire v. I just kept doing what I thought was the right thing, which meant going to the hospital and getting a rape kit done, talking to a detective and giving them my clothes, giving them as much information and screenshots of messages as I could. ![]() Three days after the crime was committed, I reported it to my mother, who then reported it to my counselor, who was then mandated to report it to the police. Paul’s school, I was sexually assaulted by a senior as part of a ritual game that played for years called the “Senior Salute.” But when I was 15 years old and a student at St. I’ve been grappling with that title recently because in a lot of situations I have to give a short, one-line statement as to who I am, which is not fair. I’m a high school sexual assault survivor, an advocate, and now an author. Credit: Heather Donlanįor those who are not familiar with your story, can you tell us a little about who you are and how you came to be a sexual assault advocate? Paul’s School rape trial, rape culture and sexual assault in high school, and her crusade for change. Prout recently spoke to the FBomb about her experiences during the now-infamous St. This month, Prout published a memoir (co-authored with journalist Jenn Abelson): I Have The Right To: A High School Survivor’s Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope. Prout has been an activist and advocate ever since, launching the hashtag and movement #IHaveTheRightTo. “I want everyone to know that I am not afraid or ashamed anymore, and I never should have been,” Prout told the “ Today” show at the time. ![]() While she remained anonymous during the trial, Prout revealed her identity in 2016. Her perpetrator, Owen Labrie, was a senior when Prout was a freshman, and was eventually convicted in 2015 of misdemeanor statutory rape and felony use of a computer. In 2014, when Chessy Prout was 15 years old, she was sexually assaulted by a student at the elite prep school St. Violence against women An interview with high school sexual assault survivor and activist Chessy Prout
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