It always amazes me that there are still some people who don’t believe in rape culture, who don’t believe it’s more than one isolated incident at a time. TMS: On top of being a survivor of rape, you talk a lot in the book about the rape culture fostered by your school. Do you know what you want to major in, what you want to study? So I’m really tackling that head-on in retelling my story through a book, talking about it with people, and I feel like after this, I’m just excited to become a college student, to study, and learn from other people. So it’s something that survivors have to come to terms with and have to get through the trauma and get through the pain. I’ve seen people and met people who have kept silent over the years and who can point out different relationships in their lives or different things in their lives that have been caused, and problems that have been caused, by their trauma that they haven’t dealt with. The trauma and aftermath of sexual assault manifests itself in so many different ways. People wrote terrible things about me and my family online and I wanted to reclaim my narrative. Speaking out was the right thing to do for me because my name was blasted on the internet. There are so many different ways that a survivor can seek justice and healing after trauma and speaking out is not always the most helpful and healing to survivors because we have so many issues with the criminal justice system and a lot of times survivors don’t find support from their families and communities.
You’ve relived your trauma over and over, with pressing charges, then revealing your identity, then writing the book and now a book tour. For many, they don’t want to have to relive that trauma. TMS: There are a lot of reasons why a survivor of sexual assault might not come forward with their story or press charges against their attacker. I was able to speak with Prout, who is now 19, looking ahead to college while also launching a worldwide campaign for the rights of sexual assault survivors. The school seemed only interested in protecting its reputation, at the expense of its most vulnerable students. Paul’s raised $100,000 for Labrie’s legal fees. During Labrie’s highly publicized trial, the school petitioned to release Prout’s identity publically, despite her young age, which should have protected her anonymity. The assault was part of a long-running (if unofficial, according to the school) tradition called the “Senior Salute,” in which seniors try to “score” with as many underclassman girls as possible. In a new book detailing her experiences, titled I Have the Right To, Prout describes an environment in which young boys are kings and girls are targets. Paul’s that allowed these sort of acts ran deep. Yet it was Prout, not her assailant, who found herself targeted and harassed. Her rapist, graduating senior Owen Labrie, was acquitted on three felony counts, but convicted on three counts of misdemeanor sexual assault, misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child, and use of a computer to engage a minor in sex (a felony). When Chessy Prout was a 15-year-old freshman at a prestigious New Hampshire boarding school, she was sexually assaulted by a fellow student and subsequently became one of the most prominent faces of the movement to end campus rape. Content warning: descriptions of sexual assault.
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