I was 15. I earned a letter in a sport at high school, wasn’t able to attend because I had blown out my knee in practice the day before. The next day, my teacher/coach said to me that if I came to his car after school, I could have my letter. He had made some remarks before that were creepy.Then, we had a party for the whole class in the room after a major test. We got to bring records. I borrowed (the only time I ever asked for anything from him) a record from my brother to take to the party. This teacher/coach took the record. He said I could go with him to his home after school and he’d give me the record. I told my brother I had lost it. He was ‘courting’ my brother for business/friendship and my brother really didn’t give a damn about what had happened to me. I have had many experiences of sexual assault and been raped, once. Of all of these, this hurt the worst because he knew my mother and brother were abusive and that’s how he targeted me. I left home for good the following week.
— Survivor, age 62
Dear survivor – thank you so much for sharing your story here. I am so sorry that your family wasn’t supportive when you were younger. I very much hope that you have since found the love and support in your life that you deserve. If you read through the stories posted here, I hope you will see that you are not alone. And that you still deserve love and support around what happened to you (in addition to generally). Sending you some of that love and support and light, Alexis