Anonymous Story: A Victim at Seven

My parents divorced when I was 6. There was his drug abuse, his belligerent attitude, financial instability because of his drug use, and the way I was treated. He was rarely around because my mom wouldn’t let him use drugs at home. I didn’t see him for a year and my mom didn’t get any money to help with me. Then she filed in court for the divorce, a restraining order, and child support. The court ordered I should have frequent visitors with my dad. My mom’s attorney requested drug testing, which he failed. The judge didn’t see that, or any of the other reasons for me to have supervised visits or for him to undergo any classes. So on every other weekend I had visits in his apartment he shared with another man. I watched them buy, use, and sell drugs. He had little interest in me, other than it was helping to reduce his child support. He started coming into the bathroom to “help” me wipe and to bathe. I had to share a bed with him because there wasn’t any other place for me to sleep. At night I could feel his hard penis pressed into my body, and eventually he started touching me under my pajamas. The second or third time I complained to my mom she called the cops. The result of the CPS investigation and an attorney who wanted to make a name for herself was “parental alienation syndrome.” The medical exam said there was evidence of some penetration. CPS and Ms. Espana, my lawyer, said I may have been molested but no one knew when or by whom. I knew when and by whom, but they didn’t want to believe me. I was placed with a distant relative for 13 months because my mom was emotionally abusing me with parental alienation syndrome. Eventually a social worker became involved and got me returned to my mom. The lesson I learned, and all the girls I went to school with, is don’t tell because no one wants to believe you and you’ll be the one punished, not the perpetrator.