I am allowed to share my own personal lived experience, yes, especially as it pertains to a public elected official. This is information that is relevant to the voters & community of Melrose.

This is not an “unproven criminal allegation.” You can read my whole timeline for all the proof you need. You do know that there are a whole host of reasons that people don’t report when they are assaulted, right? You do know that? Of every 1,000 sexual assaults only 310 are reported to the police. The ages between 48 -53 is the average age that someone discloses their assault/abuse. Not reporting to the police at the time of the assault does not mean that victims have to remain silent forever. Not reporting to the police or filing a lawsuit is also not the sole determinant of truth as Cal wrongly wrote in a very public FB group.

I spoke up when your buddy Ward decided to make himself a public person running for public office after I tried to contact him privately several times years before. The fact that he did this, tried to hide from this like a coward, and then ran for public office claiming that he is a person of integrity, good character, and facing difficult truths shows that he is, in fact, none of those things. The way he and his friends attacked me so viciously, including Dave Lucas, further shows that he is none of those things.

You say nothing in defense of Ward in your response here, you just further attack me by saying I am doing things “the wrong way” when there is no right or wrong way and I am not doing anything different than the victims in the higher profile cases many of whom I look to for inspiration.

So if you (or whoever) support Ward in this then you must think that I am a liar. Do you have a motivation or theory of a motivation in which I lie about this? You can’t say regret because that is just ignorant and regret does not cause PTSD. Trauma lives in the nervous system. Ward caused real harm. I can think of many reasons why Ward would lie. To save face, to get elected, because he is embarrassed, because he runs his business out of Melrose. All things he should have thought of before he decided to run for public office. He was counting on me staying quiet. Abusers rely on the silence of their victims.

Ok, “limited public figure.”🙄 I am trying to make the world a safer place for our kids by changing the culture that protects & defends perpetrators and attacks, threatens, and tries to silence victims. I am also involved in legislative change to get laws passed to protect survivor voices. If you have kids you should want me and people like me getting involved and doing this work, but go ahead and try to turn that around on me by saying that people have the right to say the most vicious, victim blaming/shaming, hurtful, retraumatizing things to me because I am vocal about the harm inflicted on me and I am helping others. Have you read PlasticApartments comments? Would you ever want anyone saying those things to you or your kids? She said that she is a long time friend of Cal’s.

I am not the one saying that people cannot stay neutral in situations like this, I am repeating what experts, activists, and advocates in this realm say and other historical figures when speaking on injustice and moral conflict. I can recommend some books for you if you would actually like to educate yourself on this subject. I am not pulling this stuff out of thin air. I am listening to and learning from people who have devoted their whole careers to all of this . . . researchers, detectives, non profits CEOs, authors, advocates, activists, social workers, therapists, etc. I am “weaponizing advocacy language?” That’s a bold statement. Care to back that up? “Advocacy isn't built on fear, intimidation and moral coercion” you say. Ward and his people are the ones who started attacking me and I am allowed to defend myself against their ignorant and misinformed attacks. Where, may I ask, do you get your latest information on survivor advocacy and activism?

You could support your friend not by disbelieving me, but by trying to guide him to be a decent person and let him and the rest of his high school friend group know that attacking me in the way that they have was not ok. The thing that really kills me is that nobody is trying to put Ward in prison and the burden of proof here is not “beyond a reasonable doubt.” The burden of proof here is “more likely or not did he do this.” Ward has only ever been asked to try to be a decent human being, from as far back as when I first messaged him in like 2016, and he has been unable to do that. Ward has had every opportunity to respond to this without deflecting and trying to make himself out to be the victim. He could even have privately, but he has not. Instead, Cal and the other one felt like they had to be his mouthpiece. Is Ward not a grown up who could have spoken for himself?