A 67 year old man named Don has come forward publicly about something he says he witnessed as a teenager in 1969, and he credits the current national conversation around sexual assault for his decision.
According to an essay Don wrote for The Washington Post, and an interview with Michel Martin on NPR’s All Things Considered, he attended a party in Pittsburgh as a student at an all boys Catholic school. He says he and other boys saw a girl being sexually assaulted by another teenager and that no one stepped in. In his own words to NPR, there was “nervous laughter” and nobody said anything.
Don also described a “game” at the same party in which boys inappropriately touched a girl who was unconscious. He said it happened several times before everyone left the room, and he told NPR he was relieved it did not go further.
He says the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford during the Brett Kavanaugh Senate hearings is what pushed him to write about it. Don told NPR that he believes Ford “was really telling the truth.” He also said that in 1969 young women had little support and often feared being blamed for what happened to them.
Don says he now regrets not helping. According to NPR, some people have called him a hero for speaking up, but he said he would only have been a hero if he had helped back then. He urges men to take part in the conversation around #MeToo and to speak honestly about the culture that allowed this kind of behavior.
Baller Alert is sharing his account as it was reported by The Washington Post and NPR in October 2018.
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