McMartin Pre-School

Since credibility was a main issue in the McMartin case, the following may help to understand how I came to believe my child.

Why do I believe my child was molested at McMartin? I was not present when it happened. But I am fully convinced that it happened. Why? Please try and understand. My wife and I nurtured our son’s growth, both physical and mental. I spent a lot of time with my son every day. I did not teach him to lie. I did not teach him anything about his sexuality. When we heard his initial disclosures during the Children’s Institute International interview I still did not believe it. As a matter of fact he denied it right after the interview. More disclosures came out over a period of months and years from our talks, from therapy, and from interviews with the police and prosecutors. I know those disclosures were not coerced.

Periodically, he would deny things he had said before, at times he would even deny being molested at all, only that others were. That is what we were confronted with. A cycle of disclosures and denials. I was confused and in anguish about this. It was not easy to believe all the disclosures but I eventually did because I know my son well. I and my wife brought him up. At age 7, when he first disclosed, he was not capable of lying about those kinds of things. It was the total of all the messages from him that convinced us. The messages he was trying to give me started with a violent tantrum at age 4 one morning because he did not want to go back to the preschool and included all the signs and disclosures since. At times they were inconsistent and seemed unbelievable. But, taken as a whole, it was a clear message of the basic truth that he and many, many others had been sexually molested and terrorized at the McMartin school.

I am convinced my son is telling the truth about this because I trust him not to lie about something as serious as his own molestation and that of his friends. That is a trust built on respect and understanding that started the day he was born.

ROBERT L. SALAS

Manhattan Beach