

"The motion that Michael Delaney filed on behalf of St Paul's School was really a veiled threat," said Alex Prout. Delaney represented the Boy Scouts and ultimately prevailed.

When the Boy Scouts of America faced a lawsuit from victims of a former scout leader who molested over 100 boys, their names were never made public, though all of the victims were adults at the time of the lawsuit.
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Keeping victims of sex crimes anonymous at trial is hardly irregular. The school demanded access to Prout’s diary, threatened to interview her friends, and filed a motion to strip her anonymity at trial.

Paul’s retained Delaney as counsel, and his tactics were aggressive from the outset. Paul’s filed by the Prouts, in which Chessy Prout-referred to as "Jane Doe"- alleged that the school had tolerated "ritual" sexual abuse by students. That accountability also included a civil suit against St. That settlement stemmed from Chessy Prout’s quest for accountability for that senior, Owen Labrie, who was found guilty in 2015 of misdemeanor sexual assault. Paul’s became one of the only schools in the country to enter into a settlement agreement with law enforcement in order to avoid potential criminal charges over what New Hampshire authorities called rampant "child endangerment," a blemish on the reputation of an institution that counts John Kerry, Robert Mueller, and Sen. "You've chosen the path that you wanted to take to make money off of survivors of sexual assault and defend these institutions." Delaney, you do not deserve to be in this position," Alex Prout said. Sitting alongside his wife, Susan, Alex Prout says that Delaney-having pushed successfully to unmask the identity of his daughter in a civil lawsuit surrounding the elite boarding school’s culpability for her sexual assault at the hands of an 18-year-old high-school senior-does not belong on the federal bench.
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"This is a time to do the courageous thing and withdraw this nomination," Alex Prout told the Washington Free Beacon. That has left it to the Prout family to make sure, in the words of Chessy’s father Alex Prout, that Delaney is nothing more than "an ambulance-chasing attorney." Jeanne Shaheen (D.)-who once lauded Prout’s transformation from a high-school student into a young activist-are nowhere to be found. Seven of the 11 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee were no-shows for his hearing before the panel earlier this month. And his nomination to the First Circuit Court of Appeals has put Democrats in an awkward spot, caught between support for one of their party’s judicial nominees and support for survivors of sexual assault.įor now, they seem to have opted for the former, despite pleas from Prout’s parents to sink Delaney’s nomination. Chessy ultimately finds strength in educating teens about consent and empowering them to use their voices to heal the world.Now, five years after the Prouts settled with the school, President Joe Biden wants to make Delaney a federal judge. This memoir explores the role of family, faith, and forgiveness in overcoming trauma. She launched the #IHaveTheRightTo campaign to encourage people to claim their rights to their bodies and their voices, and to stand together in support of victims of sexual violence.

At age 17, Chessy broke her silence on the Today Show to let other young survivors know they are not alone. The support Chessy received from her family and social justice advocates helped the teenager turn her pain into power - a poignant journey that embodies tikkun olam. Her willingness to stand up to the school’s toxic culture and pursue justice resulted in swift backlash: girls shunned her, boys bullied her, and school leaders tried to intimidate her. After Chessy Prout was sexually assaulted as a 15-year-old freshman at an elite boarding school, she bravely reported her attacker to police and testified against the popular senior in a trial that attracted international attention.
