Wow. I watch @PhillyD every single day and no story has ever pissed me off to the point of commenting like today’s story on JustinSchneiderGuilty.com
I want to take a chance to add to the conversation of #WhyIDidntReport from the perspective of someone who did. A thread:
Within a week of being attacked, I worked up the courage to tell my parents. They then encouraged and helped me report to the police.
I went to the station hopeful. I had an appointment with a Sheriff. I had texts from not 1, but all 3 of the perps insinuating what has happened.
I was interviewed maybe 6 separate times to test the consistency and validly of my story.
The Sheriff who was conducting the investigation told me they 100% believed this happened (because it did)
However, I was also quickly told there wasn’t enough evidence for an arrest yet.
I spent the next several hours making various phone calls to my rapists per instruction of the cops. The Sheriff listened in on the calls as well as instructed my dialogue.
Again, what was said to me on these calls HEAVILY implied what had happened.
One of them broke down in tears literally saying he was “so sorry” and that his “life was ruined” because he told his parents what he had done and he was now being shipped off to boarding school.
But because no one explicitly used the word “rape” there was no grounds for arrest
The police advised me there was little chance of prosecution and so, to save myself the stress, I should let my case go cold.
When I left that station it hurt more than it had ever. And it didn’t end there.
I was assigned a case worker who came to my house in the following days.
I went to school with these guys & even with no arrest they wanted to keep us apart. That said, legally they could not force the remaining 2/3 guys to leave the school.
But they still found a way.
The social worker told my parents in front of me that if I was not removed from my public school by them, they would charge my parents with child neglect and I would be placed in foster care for keeping me in danger.
Wtf?
I was homeschooled for the rest of high school.
This was a novel, and I don’t expect anyone to have made it this far, but if you’re still here, thank you.
I was punished over and over and over for something I could not control.
I guess if there is a moral to my story, the system needs to change.
Thanks for reading.
-Shan
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