ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS
Top Graphic from Disability Justice
When the Elmore/Autauga News first reported the arrest of a student at Stanhope High School in November for sexual assault that allegedly occurred on campus, there were a lot of questions that we could not answer or report at the time.
Opinions were divided, and we assume they still are.
An accused person is just that…accused. Innocent until proven guilty. The case continues to make its way through the court system, and eventually we will have more news concerning the outcome.
The mother of the reported victim wanted to share their experience since the alleged incident. In doing so, she is allowing us to run the letter below.
From the Mother of a reported sexual assault victim:
It was Friday, November 18th, 2022. I had worked an early shift, my husband had the day off, we had plans to go Christmas shopping, and possibly lunch. To me it was a chilly day but for most it was an alright day. The sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky. Just a beautiful, autumn day.
That day I got off of work, went home, took a quick shower, changed clothes, and off we went to lunch and Christmas shopping. We knew we had an idea of what to get the kids but still wanted to look around. Our wedding date was less than a month away. We were planning on doing an elopement, so all the drama surrounding a wedding would be gone for us that day.
After stopping to gas up the truck and say hi to a few friends we ran into, we finally made it to lunch. It was a late lunch but that’s because I got off of work at eleven that morning. We had just sat down with an appetizer, drinks, and looking to figure out the main course.
My phone rang which I immediately picked up. I was/am always worried the schools are going to call, a relative will need to get ahold of me, etc….
When my phone rang that day, it showed the principal’s office at my daughter’s high school. I took the call outside to get away from the noise of the restaurant so I could hear better. It was the assistant principal letting me know my daughter had been sexually assaulted while at school that day. He asked if she was capable of consenting and I said “No, no she’s not. She is special needs autism, she is mentally not capable of consenting.”
He then told me I had to get to the school as soon as possible because the police had already been notified and they were on their way. We drove from the restaurant to the high school in record time. When we got to the school, they tried putting us in the front office but couldn’t, so they led us across the campus to the assistant principal’s office.
They said they had to grab my daughter from class and bring her to the office. At this point a million thoughts are running through my head but the first one that sticks out to me is “My daughter was just potentially sexually assaulted and you sent her back to class?!”
From there it was a flurry of questions, in and out of the office talking with school administrators, the school resource officer, and police detectives.
Since that day none of our lives have been the same. My daughter wouldn’t sleep for more than three hours at a time due to waking up screaming and crying, I couldn’t sleep for more than three hours because I was constantly getting up with her.
My husband has so many emotions and doesn’t know how to handle everything. My daughter’s brothers are angry and upset. They were scared to return to school because of the retaliation we have been facing since this happened. They are just as upset as we all are, and they are having trouble expressing it. My husband and I have four children. My fifteen-year-old daughter is our only Baby Girl.
We don’t know how to handle this news. Our only daughter, our Baby Girl, who loves Disney, loves cats…. was sexually assaulted at school.
She was sexually assaulted in a place we are supposed to trust our children to be. A place they are supposed to be safe. My daughter was anything but safe that day.
This person, this student, this accused vile human being, pretended to be her friend, used her disabilities against her, and allegedly sexually assaulted her. We have had to cancel our wedding. We also had to cancel plans to visit family out of state, cancel plans for any type of vacation we were hoping to go on this year. We had to do those things for a myriad of reasons. One of them being we don’t know what the future holds or how long the court process will take.
Right now, our baby girl, our only daughter, our Dr. Who loving child, won’t even leave the house. She is terrified of leaving the house except to go to a relative’s house.
So, this is our new normal. Living day by day, night by nightmarish night, never knowing what the next day might hold, never knowing if or when our daughter will ever want to leave the house again, never knowing if our lives will be “right” or “normal” or “happy” again.
