All I’m going to say is I started by freshman year at Lakewood High School in 1992.
In March of 1993 the news about the Spur Posse broke.
Thinking about the things those young men got away with, and continued to get away with even after all the press and the criminal cases, makes me sick to my stomach.
So much that never made the press, so many stories that aren’t mine to tell, but so much more harm done to so many more people than will ever be known.
I had never in my life been so thankful to be unpopular as then, because none of them got near me.
Except for one who seemed to find it fun to pretend to pursue me from time to time- to the point that I had to spend the rest of our grad night hiding after he drunkenly chased me around the skating rink.
And then two years later he ended up enrolled in my same college and picked the game up right where he left off.
Nothing actionable, but enough to have me constantly looking over my shoulder as I moved between classes.
I chalked it up as proof that men like that never grow up or grow out of it, they just get better at not getting caught.
So while I am disgusted and disappointed, I find myself unsurprised about the issues at Cornell and fully expect a lot more of that kind of thing happens a lot more frequently than we ever hear about.
Every few years wave after wave of women come forward with their stories, and wave after wave of men, and often other women as well, counter with excuses and justifications.
I’m not sure how we break that cycle, but I know it won’t end well if we let it continue.
Image Credit:
Stop Sign in Austrailia
by Bidgee