Do you know a predator? Probably.

 Last week I hit the Trump-Epstein Memorial Bookmobile. Then a few days later I visited the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room. 

Both were awful. The overwhelming amounts of material linking Epstein to Trump, the raw emotion in the artwork of survivor Maria Farmer. . . it was all hard to take. But it’s important for me to bear witness. By doing so I'm doing my best to support and validate the survivors, demand justice for them, and do what I can to break the silence. Silence is the breeding ground of complicity. Silence minimizes/ normalizes/ ignores/enables sexual abuse.  

Half the nation elected a known sexual predator to the highest office in the land. You’d have to have been comatose the last thirty years to NOT know that this monster abused and violated women. Even before the internet put his despicable deeds on full, easily searchable display, his criminal actions – including multiple sexual assault  allegations, regularly made the front pages of national and local newspapers, magazines, tabloids. 

Yet, some of my neighbors, former friends, and co-workers – people I used to respect and now have as little to do with as possible, minimized/ normalized/ ignored all this, and voted for him not once, twice, but even three times, and by doing so chose to minimize, normalize, ignore, and enable sexual assault. 

One out of every five females experience sex assault. I've known this stat forever and had it imprinted on my brain during multiple grad school classes while getting my master’s in education. Over the decades since, the stats haven’t changed. Don’t believe me? Then practice due diligence and do your own research. You won’t be able to tell me I’m wrong.

I’ve done the work and walked the walk. Thirty years as a teacher who worked with thousands of kids, and I can verify that the one out of five stat is maybe even a little low.  

Sex assault survivors are everywhere. Predators are too. 

As a new teacher back in the early ‘90s, I was mentored by a teacher deeply respected by students, peers, parents, administrators. I learned the nuts and bolts of working in a classroom from this guy. I moved on to a different school after one year and lost track of him.  I heard he eventually left the classroom and moved into admin posts in other districts.

A few years ago, he made the local papers. Nearing retirement age after a child-centered career spanning more than three decades, he was arrested on charges related to child pornography. Among the details of his arrest, newspaper reports at the time say police found over 200 images of child sexual abuse material on a CD at his house. 

Last I read about him were reports that he claimed he was abused by priests as a child. 

I can’t make sense out of any of this. Confronting the facts and continuing to stand up for survivors helps.