Intimidation
One thousand, one hundred and twenty three reasons to smile this morning! It is good to feel that we are not alone in taking actions to at least express our dissatisfaction with the District's handling of this crisis to date (not to mention for the last 50 years!) What we see generally is foot shuffling, minor concessions relative to some of the recommendations of the independent investigator and statements crafted to persuade the public to believe this is all under control, the kids are safe now, we may all go home.
The survivors and the allies and all those who recognize that systemic and prolonged cases of abuse or corruption or whatever the toxin is do not vanish by issuing a letter and making minor changes or promising to, are NOT going home. Many survivors named the current principal as a sexual predator. As that is the case his name should be on the list of 30 perpetrators but we do not know if it is or not. We continue to ask the superintendent to verify that NO person currently working in the district is on that list, and we continue to get no answer to that critical question.
Many of those who support doing nothing, letting the District deal with this situation, are actively trying to intimidate survivors and allies, with anything from working to get them blocked from social alumni accounts and trolling their posts, to character assassination to threats. This is normal, sorry to say, whenever institutions are strongly criticized: there are those who see criticism, not as an attempt to better an institution, in this case KHS, but as an attempt to tear it down.
We are not anti-KHS, anti-Board, anti-Kirkwood. I feel safe in saying this although I am not a spokesman for the survivors. None I have interacted with are about tearing things down. What we oppose is this: systemic sexual abuse of children and the cover up of the same. Period. And efforts to intimidate us, will not succeed. We will continue to stand for the children until they are safe.
Please keep the petition pinned to the top of your page so it is accessible to all. Please keep the link copied so you can give it easily to anyone you may be chatting with. Please do not cave to the intimidation attempts of a few.