SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS — EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR

April 30, 2025

Every day of the year children are sexually abused. Every day of the year, adult survivors struggle to find a way to live a life outside of the long shadow of having been sexually abused in childhood. Likewise, Sexual Assault Awareness is not limited to one month a year – it must be held in our awareness every single day of the year.

Last week the world learned the sad new of Virginia Guiffre’s death by suicide. Ms. Guiffre was one of the first victims to accuse Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew of sexual abuse and sex trafficking, exposing a sordid and horrifically damaging sex trafficking operation carried on in broad daylight by wealthy and entitled predators.  In the words of her family, “Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors.”

Despite her courage and strength in speaking out about her years of sexual abuse as a teenager, becoming a loving mother of 3 children, and founding an advocacy charity, her family shared, “In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.”

It is not an exaggeration to say that the effects of sexual abuse last a lifetime. The manipulation (grooming) and coercion along with the actual sexual violation leave victims filled with self- blame, debilitating shame, and a profound lack of trust in the world around them. Time does not heal all wounds, and in fact, the burden of sexual abuse often grows heavier as the years of suffering accumulate.

We are left to ponder how the outcome for Ms. Guiffre and all survivors of sexual abuse might have been different if the world around them would have been awake and aware to notice and speak up about the signs of abuse. How many people in the Jeffrey Epstein circle willingly turned a blind eye to the obvious exploitation of so many young women? The sexual abuse of minors does not exist in a vacuum – there are signs to be seen and questions to be asked.

If we are waiting for perpetrators to gain a moral conscience or for victims to become more empowered to tell of the abuse they are enduring, that day will never come. It is up to each of us to become informed – know the signs of grooming, gather the courage to speak up when abuse is suspected, support every effort possible to let survivors know that they are seen and believed, and most certainly, let survivors know that help is possible – they need not suffer alone.

I firmly believe that the tragic ending of Virginia Guiffre’s life is not inevitable. Hope and healing are possible, and the light of awareness and advocacy can shine into the deepest recesses of pain and darkness. Sexual Assault Awareness can and must happen today, tomorrow, and every day of the year.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/sexually-abused-never-really-over-190000438.html

~ Janice Palm, LMHC, Executive Director