Opinion: Why you should believe sexual assault accusers who come forward decades later

According to the Washington Post, a woman said Moore made inappropriate advances and had sexual contact with her when she was 14.

Nov. 13, 2017 12:35 PM PT

To the editor: I am a former high school teacher. During numerous class discussions, I listened to many, many students reveal that they were the victims of sexual abuse. (“Another accuser comes forward against Roy Moore,” Nov. 13)

Listening to their stories was heartbreaking, and I always wondered why some of them waited so long to “tell.” What I learned was that “kids never tell.”

I don’t know if it was fear, guilt, confusion or some intuitive sense that what happened was just too wrong to discuss. I heard sexual abuse stories, often, 10 years after the incidents, so I knew for sure that only the atmosphere in the class and the trust they had in me gave them enough courage to confess the abuses they suffered.

I hope the public that has no real knowledge of the vast incidents of sexual abuse does not dismiss these women as liars or having other motives. I know that a victim of any sort of sexual abuse does not react in the same way one would if attacked differently. Please believe them.

Phyllis Molloff, Fallbrook

To the editor: If someone in the entertainment business is accused of sexual abuse in one form or another, industry support is immediately terminated. And so it should be.

If one is running for the presidency or a seat in the United States Senate, political parties feign disgust but continue to support the accused on the chance that the allegations are untrue.

Alleged Hollywood abusers, are you listening? All is not lost. There are still career opportunities for you in Washington.

Todd Rutherford, Riverside

To the editor: Can someone help me understand “values” voters? They stress the importance of Christian values, then vote for a confessed sexual harasser for president and support a Senate candidate who is accused of having sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl in 1979.

How can they reconcile these positions? The term “hypocrisy” comes to mind.

Charles Lindahl, Fullerton

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