When Keith Wheeler was just 11 years old, he was molested at the hands of his music teacher. Keith never told his family and as he grew older, he turned to marijuana and alcohol to cope. “I wanted — no, needed — to block out the pain,” he explains.
Those who have experienced abuse or assault by a relative can find the holidays particularly challenging, as a family gathering means coming face-to-face with his or her perpetrator.
The Justice Department estimates that 1.6 million youth run away each year. One of the issues that many runaways face is sexual violence; this is why Angela Kempe is sharing her story now, during National Runaway Prevention Month.
"Rape doesn’t happen in marriage.” That is what Serena Acker told herself when her husband of a year began frequently demanding sex and forcing himself on her. But she realized, in fact, it does.