Natal--You are correct in that I am making an assumption that the younger girls might have been abused in some fashion. I apologize as I shouldn't make that leap.
My point, however, is that testimony must be preserved and I've learned that the justice system rarely concerns itself with the victims' well-being. Trial preparation is brutal. In my experience, very few concessions are made because of a victims' fear or discomfort. Thank goodness we have victims' advocates and advocacy groups. Our family would have perished without them. Their goal, though, is to preserve the victims' rights--not follow best practice for mental health and healing while awaiting a trial. This is where one would think that a family could step in. My experience was that our family had our hands tied behind our backs and were prohibited from offering the solace our kids desperately needed.
Our older children who were not victims, our friends, extended family, and teachers were not permitted to allow our children who were victims to speak of the abuse until the trial was over. The school actually had educational aids follow and supervise our children so this didn't happen.
We know that Jaycee is an abuse survivor. I think we all agree that her healing needs to begin. I'm really just trying to dispel any thoughts that the girls and Jaycee and the parents can speak freely and share their experiences. I wish I was wrong!! I know this part of the criminal process just floored me as I felt that my children needed to talk.
Thank you for calling me out on that assumption.
i was never sexually abused or went thru any of the stuff jaycee has endured. but i do know what it's like to be mentally beaten down and be made to think your life is totally dependent on someonelse and that your worthless without them. i was never able to talk to anybody about it cause i was scared and i thought it made me look weak. like i said in my other posts, my mom and my gramps ment the world to me. sadly i had another 'adult' parent who deighted in tormenting me and beating me down. i could never talk about it. not till 10 years after she was dead, and after my gramps was dead. my mom was stunned. she never knew it was that bad and wondered why i never came to her about it. its just something that i couldnt do......and it took years of self recovery and someone coming into my life to find my way to open up about it. i can only imagine how hard it will be for jaycee to discuss what happened to her, which was 100000 times worse. but i know she can do it. she's so strong to have gotten this far.........