I was sexually assaulted when I was in high school. It upended my life for a period of time, and I had to transfer schools because of the social backlash I experienced for reporting what my assailant did to me. He was an athlete who people wanted to protect.
When I learned about the Stanford swimmer sexual assault case and the six-month jail sentence that followed, to be honest, I was wholly unsurprised. My own experience taught me to expect nothing more, and that’s what’s so sad about it all. This should not be normal.
We need to support survivors when they come forward, and we need a cultural shift. Part of that means holding perpetrators accountable and, when people in places of power are not willing to do that, we need to replace them with people who will.
Please vote to recall and replace Judge Persky this June.
