A Question of Morality?

Hello good people! 

We are hovering, momentarily, at just under 520 signatures. This is a fantastic start for a petition that started only one week ago! Kudos to all!

As you and I work, supporting the survivors, raising consciousness, demanding that no sexual predators work for Kirkwood Schools, that known sexual abusers are held accountable, and calling for real and comprehensive protection of the students of Kirkwood, you will find, as I have, that you run into resistance, some of it very direct. 

This is to be expected. The tacit coercion to be silent is very real and effective. Direct coercion to silence was noted in the Encompass Resolution report itself, situations in which faculty and staff were directly discouraged from reporting incidents they knew about of sexual abuse. Some who confessed to sexual abuse of children in the schools were told to be silent!  

It seems endemic that often, when we are made aware that something unjust is happening about us, we find ourselves in a new and uncomfortable position of having to make a decision as to how we respond to what we have learned. Specifically: Will we act or not? Not wanting to get involved...is motivated by several causes, fear being the overriding prompt. People are fearful of blowback as we can understand. They don't know what will happen if they as much as sign a petition! Maybe someone will keep the list and negative consequences will arise down the road. But beneath this and even more common perhaps is the fact that taking action on one thing requires some sacrifice. If I am going to stand on a street corner holding a sign on Friday, I will have to cancel this or that. If I spend two hours going down my Messenger list of contacts and sending my friends a personal message asking them to read this petition, to think about it, to sign and share it, I will miss tonights Netflix episode I am following. 

Another disincentive, is that we may be accused of virtue signaling, of trying to pose as some sort of special humans, to get more "likes" and "thumbs ups" as laptop activists. 

I have found that trying to control what others think of me is useless and a great waste of time. Our time, is best spent, doing what we already realize is the right thing to do, even if it requires sacrifice of a few other things for now. We are Protecting the Children. That is all this is about: protecting those who were children and had no protection in the past, protecting the present students from real threats and protecting students for many years to come. 

Keep up the good work. Message everyone you know. The pm's on Messenger get very good responses as the receiver knows you, is an acquaintance, a co-worker, a relative, a friend. Send them the simple link: https://www.change.org/KHSstoptheabuse2021