Ron Sexsmith--"Reason To Believe" (mp3)
Inspired by the recent trial and the tragic circumstances of one of our students.
It is not a child’s fault that no one else saw.
It is not a child’s fault that no one asked.
It is not a child’s fault that when warned not to tell because bad things would happen, he believed it.
It is not a child’s fault that she didn’t tell.
It is not a child’s fault that he was afraid.
It is not a child’s fault that she was found out.
It is not a child’s fault that his body contained evidence.
It is not a child’s fault that she said a name.
It is not a child’s fault that the police were not properly trained to question him.
It is not a child’s fault that a parent asked too many times, over and over, exactly what had happened to her.
It is not a child’s fault that he acted out sexually as a result.
It is not a child’s fault that a lawyer didn’t know how to properly present her as a witness.
It is not a child’s fault that he didn’t remember at age 8 everything that had happened to him at age 6.
It is not a child’s fault if she remembered it sometimes differently, sometimes incompletely, sometimes completely.
It is not a child’s fault if he forgot, or if he tried to forget.
It is not a child’s fault if she was coached, like every witness who has taken the witness stand has been coached.
It is not a child’s fault if he wonders why he was not believed.
It is not a child’s fault if she no longer trusts how the world works.
Eventually, it will be passed off as something that happened to them way back in childhood, and they will be expected to get beyond it, and everything that happens later on will indeed be seen as their fault.
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