Notes on a Silencing

by Lacy Crawford

Little-known fact about victims: they can tell whether you believe them by which term you use when you ask what happened to them.

This was both the glory and the slap of the place: take it or leave it—the school, like time, did not care. It continued on. Yours to decide what to love, or if, or how.

It’s a curious thing how children are wired to ask for help when hurt or frightened—Ouch! Help me!—but shame turns this inside out: I can survive this as long as nobody else ever knows.

It’s so simple, what happened at St. Paul’s. It happens all the time.