Rape, Restraining Orders, Resilience and a Little Girl Caught in the Crossfire
There are those moments where life kind of runs at you. I am absolutely in that season right now, but with that, it’s important to not only amplify Celeste’s voice but to amplify my own.
“Trauma is longitudinal.” Those are the words that I said to Dr. Richard Mason, Vice-Chair of the Hampton School Board at the “Souls to the Polls” event on October 24, 2021. The words weren’t new to Dr. Mason — he’s stated them in the October School Board meeting when the Hampton School Board wanted to fawn all over themselves and get media exposure when they presented their CISM protocol plan. CISM stands for Critical Incident Stress Management and it is Hampton’s plan to respond to incidents like bomb threats or school shootings. Hampton City Schools was aiming to capitalize off of the school shooting that occurred at Heritage High School earlier in the year. Dr. Mason’s EXACT WORDS:
“When you look at trauma and you look at mental health, our world continues to move even when we are in crisis. And so we know that trauma can create so many obstacles and issues for everyday functioning, simply from depression to anxiety and we know that CISM works. There’s data to support that it’s certainly going to reduce those areas and especially coming back to school from a pandemic. There are so many things that being in this pandemic…. As we look at some of these situations now, we’re going to find that some other things are going to bubble up because trauma is longitudinal and there are some things that we experience as adults that we experienced in our childhood that created those things — we refer to those things as adverse childhood experiences. We don’t realize that those things can cause hypertension, diabetes, and strokes and all of those things in our lives….”
The issue here was not that I threw his own words in his face — it was that I threw his own words at him in front of his fan club. That day, I was able to have an audience with Haia Ayala, then-candidate for Lieutenant Governor. The next day, I had an audience with Terry McAuliffe, former governor of Virginia and then-candidate for governor. That following Monday night, a Hampton Police officer showed up at my door. Why was the police officer there? To serve me with a protective order from Dr. Mason. This man LIED OUT OF HIS FACE in order to gain a protective order and to restrict me from spaces where I would have been able to amplify my daughter’s voice and gain an audience with both Commonwealth legislators as well as national legislators. In that regard, he succeeded. What is absolutely hysterical in this is that he said other people had to stop me from “reaching” him. Why is this funny, you ask? I’ve been limited to no weight bearing on my left foot since AUGUST, meaning when I pivoted and said “Trauma is longitudinal,” I was on CRUTCHES. We went to court over this protective order and he came girded with his fancy titles and his attorney. He made psychological diagnoses of me when I have NEVER been his patient. At that hearing, I learned who was and was not my ally. Relationships were shattered. But even with all of that, the judge threw his protective order out, saying that even when Ann Stevens Cherry tried to say that when I called her out of her name at the school board meeting that those actions should be taken into account, (see “Banned from the Board: Board Bullies Try to Silence Rape”) the judge stated that he did not prove that I was EVER a threat to him at the “Souls to the Polls” event.
I’ve NEVER been a threat to Richard Mason. I’ve NEVER been a threat to ANY MEMBER of the school board. As a resident of the city of Hampton and as one of their constituents, I have EVERY RIGHT to call any elected official out when they are failing at their jobs. My daughter was REPEATEDLY RAPED in a Hampton elementary school. (www.8forCeleste.org) They refuse to do ANYTHING to provide remedy or support to my child. I gave them chances. I asked for three simple things that would have cost Hampton City Schools NOTHING. Move Celeste to the school of our choice. NO MONEY. Ensure that Celeste and her rapist never be in in the same school again and that Celeste be provided priority. NO MONEY. Pay for therapy costs. This COULD have cost the district minimal dollars, but what’s funny is that Dr. Richard Mason is a THERAPIST. He could have taken Celeste on as a patient and waived the fees, then cost the district NOTHING. But again, the Hampton School Board is not concerned with taking care of children — they are concerned with patting themselves on the back for other people’s work. Dr. Jeffrey Smith, superintendent of Hampton City Schools is concerned with selling the district’s curriculum and accepting awards for being such a GREAT educator while little black girls are being REPEATEDLY RAPED in the bathrooms of their elementary schools. “Every Child, Every Day, Whatever It Takes.” What does that mean? Which children in the district does Hampton City Schools deem expendable? In all of the smoke and mirrors in this entire situation, the only person that REALLY MATTERS is Celeste. SHE is who matters. And through all of this, SHE is the one who has been hurt… and Hampton City Schools could care less.
Now, I have to hire an attorney. Dr. Mason has decided to appeal the judge’s order to deny the protective order. He gets to waste more time — my time and the time of the court system. Time is not valuable for Dr. Mason, as everyone who testified in the original case have better things to do than to continue on this ridiculous journey so he can stroke his ego. I don’t have the money for a good lawyer. Because of Hampton City Schools, I have private school tuition bills for Celeste. I have gas bills back and forth to Norfolk twice a day. What’s best for Celeste should be at the forefront, but to Ann Steven Cherry, Richard Mason, and the rest of the school board, Celeste is just a blip in their political radar. It’s sad, really. There are absolute instances where people have acted out of pocket at school board meetings for issues that are next to nothing but an inconvenience. This is not that. My daughter’s life story has been tarnished and broken and she deserves to be healed.
So if you find it in your heart to share a dollar or two, please donate to our GoFundMe. If you don’t like GoFundMe, my Cashapp is $NikiaKMiller, my Venmo is @beautifulblissstat and my Zelle is beautifulblissstationery@gmail.com. Any and all help is welcomed and appreciated.
This is so much, but we will get through this. I am committed to delivering Celeste to the other side of this so that she can thrive and the rest of her life can be whatever she hopes it to be. I have to believe that, in spite of her circumstances, her light will NOT be dimmed by the lack of accountability from the adults who were entrusted to keep her safe when she was on school property.
