We're still in shock.

We've been saying prayers for years. We've checked the Illinois Courts Commission website every morning, for months. We've sent out so many e-mails to news desks, to journalists, to legal helplines - asking again, and again, again for someone, anyone, to please help us. 

And ultimately, we were staring down what felt like certain defeat. We were bracing our hearts and minds for how it was going to feel if the Decision was announced that the complaint had been dismissed.

But that's not what happened.

Robert K Adrian is removed from office, effective immediately. 

He didn't retire;
he was fired. 

For context, THIS IS HUGE.
If anyone says this isn't huge, please reserve skepticism they may just want to downplay how huge it totally is.

In the State of Illinois, the Courts Commission has only come to the Decision that they see fit to remove a judge from office two other times in the past 20 years. In both those instances, those judges left office before being removed. So put another way, this has never happened before in decades. 

We've all been crying. A lot.

And those shockwaves truly are still rolling - we're not exactly sure what to say that could possibly convey the true magnitude of this ruling, because it is so much bigger than us.

But the most important message is this:

Thank you. All of you.

Thank you for believing the words of a 16 year old girl, and her family, and her friends. 

Thank you to Cameron Vaughan and her family, who kept agreeing to keep fighting battle after battle, who had to endure so much heartache when they were wronged by the perpetrator, and then wronged by the judge, and then told the Illinois Supreme Court would not hear the case, and then the judge was narrowly retained, all while facing how-many-ever other personal and professional battles life doles out to each of us. Cammy, her family, and her friends are heroes. 

WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU, CAMMY!!

Thank you for allowing us to help share your story with the world. We hope this will inspire anyone who needs to feel like their voice is important and can be heard. And we hope it also inspires everyone to see how standing up in support next to someone who needs it can make the difference!

"Stand With Cammy" is and always has been an intensely small group in the nucleus. And it's important to us, because we want everyone to see even where two or three are gathered, you can be seen and heard. 

We aren't affiliated with any political movement or party; we believe persons who seek to divide us in numbers by appealing to if people want to self-ascribe as "right" or "left" or "conservative" or "liberal" is pure sophistry. 

We don't all believe or not believe the same religion. We respect our constitutional right to a separation of church and State. If anything, we have put fervent effort into respecting Christian doctrines specifically because it's incensing to have heard someone differentiate himself by claiming to be a Christian for the express purpose of inferring we must not be. 

No one from our group has ever been paid. No one has ever paid for a press release. No one was paid to write, or communicate, or research, or question, or persist.

We just did.

Because it was the right thing to do.

Because the fear of feeling like we live in a world where predators are prioritized over those they harm was too much for our hearts to sustain. 

Please carry this victory forth.

Please tell your friends and family how one teenager stood in front of a courthouse in a small town in the middle of the Midwest and boldly told everyone she was going to fight.

In the end, we fight for these three things:

Faith, Hope, and Love.

Always fight for love.

The world needs it.

Be good to each other,

#StandWithCammy