Crowd rallies against violence
It took only a few words before the quiver in her voice turned to tears. But crying before a crowd of about 100 peers and adults did not stop her from telling her story. The 16-year-old Laurel Highlands High School student said she was abused, physically and sexually. She recounted specific things – threats that her neck would be slashed, her mother harmed, being physically thrown against a wall – to a group of students that stood uncharacteristically noiseless, perhaps stunned by the real face of an abuse victim.
Her public acknowledgement of the abuse was not to garner pity or gain attention, she said. It was to remind her peers that abuse does happen, and to implore them to come forward.
“I don’t want other kids to go through that, living with that pain. Please, don’t go through that,” she said, urgency evidence in her young voice.
The teen spoke on Friday on the steps of the Fayette County Courthouse during the Men Against Sexual Violence (MASV) rally. In its fifth year, the rally challenges men to sign a pledge that they will never commit or condone sexual violence.
The rally is held in conjunction with sexual violence awareness and child abuse prevention month and crime victim’s rights week. It’s sponsored by the Crime Victim’s Center of Fayette County and the Fayette County Children and Youth Services agency.
The teen said her abuse took place over seven years, noting it started when she was 7 years old, and went on until 7 months after her 14th birthday. Her mother’s boyfriend abused her sexually, and threatened to harm her or her mom if she told, she said.
Seven years of abuse took its toll, she said, and in an effort to numb the pain, she turned to bad habits like drinking and smoking.
“I realized it wasn’t worth it,” she said. “Don’t hide it. I did for seven years, and I was terrified.”
In February of her 7th-grade year, the girl said she thought it was the “end of the road” for her.
She said the man grabbed her by her throat and slammed her against a wall. “I finally passed out, and when I woke up, I was under the coffee table half naked,” she said.
She tried to get away, only to have more clothes ripped off.
The girl said she also saw her mom abused physically by the man, and yet she went to school daily, acted normal and hid her home life from everyone.
The girl said she finally told her mother what had been happening when the man punched her mother in the mouth with so much force that 16 stitches were needed to close the wound. Her mother had him arrested for that, and the girl said she felt it was time to tell.
Afterward, tears still in her eyes and her voice still wavering, the teen said she wanted to speak out, and felt she needed to, so that others going through the private pain of abuse might come forward.
The girl wasn’t named in this because it’s the policy of the Herald-Standard not to run the names of juvenile sexual assault victims.
Dr. Joann Jankoski, a professor at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, thanked the girl for “making the invisible visible.”
Abuse does not discriminate, Jankoski said. Neither do the potential effects, she said. It can foster an inability to trust, or be intimate, she said.
Looking to the students, Jankoski said that they needed to take a stand and, “Make a difference by having a voice.”
Others who spoke at the rally also urged the students present to get involved
Fayette County child abuse prosecutor Jack R. Heneks Jr., who has acted in that capacity for nearly a decade, told the students they could to be part of the “team” combating abuse by volunteering for Children and Youth Services (CYS) or the Crime Victim’s Center (CVC).
He also praised workers at CYS and the CVC, agencies he works closely with on a regular basis.
Lisa Harvilla, fiscal manager at CVC, brought 12 boys and 12 girls to face the students who were there. Three of those girls and two of those boys will have been sexually assaulted by age 18, she said.
Harvilla said that 85 percent of child abuse is committed by someone known to the child. And the effects of the abuse can manifest themselves in many ways, including discipline problems, drug or alcohol abuse, promiscuity or self-mutilation, Harvilla said.
“What about the children who didn’t tell?” she asked.
Gina D’Auria, county case manager for CYS, said she was encouraged to see how the rally has grown in its five years. The first year, mostly employees from CYS and CVC came. Over the years, students from local high schools and other community members joined in.
This year, students from Laurel Highlands, Geibel and Brownsville Area high schools attended.
Alyssa Iannamorelli, a Laurel Highlands High School student who has used the platform of child abuse prevention as her senior project, emceed the rally.
At the end, Iannamorelli presented the CVC with a check for $2,400 raised by LH students.
“It just takes one voice to affect many,” she said.