USPS Publication Number 16300
T h is C o m mu n i t y N ewsp a p er is a pu bl ica t ion of E sca m bia-S a n t a Rosa B a r Assoc ia t ion
Se r v i ng t he Fi r st Jud icia l Ci rcu it Section A, Page 1
Vol. 20, No. 48
Visit The Summation Weekly Online: www.summationweekly.com
November 25, 2020
1 Section, 8 Pages
H A N N AH’ S STORY
HOW ONE COURAGEOUS YOUNG WOMAN SURVIVED & THRI V E D WIT H HELP FROM GU L F COAST KID’ S HOUS E by Kelly Oden | photography by Guy Stevens
Child abuse is on the rise. Prior to the pandemic, Escambia County already had a higher rate of child abuse than most other counties in Florida. Since the pandemic, however, those numbers have increased dramatically. In fact, we’ve seen a 33 percent increase in physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect in just the last three months according to Gulf Coast Kid’s House (GCKH), an area non-profit that provides counseling and legal services to victims of childhood abuse and their families. Organizations like GCKH provide critically needed counseling, deposition and legal services for victims in a comprehensive, one-stop environment. Having these services under one roof limits the number of strangers a child has to repeat the story of their abuse to, and it makes all of the necessary appointments much more manageable for the family as a whole. Because their clients are children, we rarely hear the personal stories of how GCKH helps victims of abuse. Once grown, many victims understandably do not want to relive their abuse publicly. However, once in a while, a survivor comes forward to share their story in the hopes that it will help another victim and bring awareness to the organization that supported them through their process of surviving childhood abuse. For Hannah, the abuse began at age two. “My mom took me to the doctor because I kept telling her that daddy hurt me,” Hannah said. “She took me to the doctor, and he did an exam. He didn’t see anything, which is very common with molestation because there aren’t always visible signs.” The abuse, which included sexual, physical and verbal abuse, continued in secret until Hannah’s mother, Robin, left her father when Hannah was eight years old. Her father threatened Hannah to keep quiet, and she never said a word. Even so, Robin knew something was off enough that she didn’t trust him alone with Hannah. “He was abusive to me, so whenever I separated, I had suspicions. I was really concerned that if something had not already happened, it very well could,” she remembered. “So, we left, and an investigation was done through Child Services. It was found that he had not done anything, but they still saw him as a risk, so they recommended supervised visits.” For the next few years, Hannah was seeing a therapist and having supervised visits with her father. Around age 13, Hannah wanted a break from the visits. “I decided that I wanted to pause visits for a while because he had gotten on a huge tangent and just threw a yelling, screaming fit in a visit one time, and I
wanted a break. So after a couple of months, he scheduled an appointment with the therapist that we had been seeing. He told her what had happened because he thought that was why I didn’t want to see him. “ Assuming Hannah had told her therapist about the abuse, her father confessed to everything. As one can imagine, the therapist was shocked that this had happened to Hannah and no one knew. She was also shocked that the father showed no remorse and attempted to justify his abuse by claiming it came from a place of love. “My therapist just played along with him and got all the information out of him that she could,” Hannah said. “She recorded it and then confirmed with me that it had happened.” For Hannah, the truth coming out sent her world into a tailspin. “All of it was just so confusing,” she said. “I always thought that wrong things had been done to me, but I never had any kind of perspective as to how bad it was. Once everyone knew, it was hitting me in the face that, ’Oh my God, this is really bad.’ I started using a service dog around that time because I couldn’t leave the house.” Hannah found that her friends started to drift away as well. “I definitely had a lot of friends that did not know how to support me. When you are going through something like that, it really is so much effort to pick up the phone, send a text or call somebody. So, people get frustrated that you don’t want to text them back or call them.” Hannah advises young people to stick by their friends who may be going through something similar, saying, “Just be there for them. If you haven’t heard from them in two days, just let them know you are thinking about them.” Robin remembers that Hannah was “emotionally raw” at that point. “She couldn’t go outside, and she couldn’t be around anyone else because she was so exposed emotionally,” she said. “Some of the best advice I got from counseling was to just let Hannah hurt. Let her hurt and let her express that however she needed to. I tried to listen to her and let her tell me what was go-
ing to be helpful for her.” Once the truth had been uncovered, charges were filed, and friends pointed the family in the direction of GCKH. Both Robin and Hannah are grateful for the help and support they received from GCKH, and they don’t know if they would have gotten the outcome they did without the organization. “So we called, and that was just the best thing ever, in a very horrible situation,” Robin said. “Looking back, I don’t know how we would have ever navigated through all of the legal process and got the counseling we needed in one place. I couldn’t imagine having to go from building to building and office to office and relive the story each time. I can’t imagine Hannah having to meet all these different people—strangers. There’s no way that we would have been able to stick with the process.” For Hannah, GCKH provided a safe place where she knew everyone was fighting for her. “I had a therapist, and there were victim’s advocates and things like that along the whole way,” she said. “Every deposition I did, I had someone sitting right there in the room with me that was literally just there to be a comfort to me—to keep me company. At the Kid’s House, everything is in this one building. It’s not the sheriff’s department. It’s not an interrogation. The whole process was a lot less grueling with the help of the Kid’s House. It was the same team throughout the process, so I got to know them. The prosecutor was amazing. She was so sweet to us, but you could tell she was just an absolute bulldog in court, and she was. I still actually sometimes go back and do the counseling because I can quit or restart for as
long as I want, whenever I want.” For Robin, GCKH helped her deal with the grief and the guilt she felt as a parent “Going into counseling—especially the group therapy—was so beneficial for me,” she said. “I wasn’t alone. Any caregiver that had a child that had been a victim of abuse, whether it be sexual or physical, they were in there, and it all happened on their watch, so to speak. We all have the same thing in common—how did this happen? How did I not know? I also learned so much about the predator and how they function. One of the things I learned was that it had absolutely nothing to do with me. There was nothing I could have done because they are a predator, and they will find their prey. I might have caught on to some tactics, but then the tactics would have changed. I couldn’t have prevented him from being a predator. Bottom line. He was a predator and he preyed. That’s the biggest thing I would want a parent or caregiver to know—it’s not your fault.” Once the case got to court, Hannah’s father confessed to everything and still maintained that he had done nothing wrong. It took the jury 30 minutes to convict him and he was sentenced to life in prison. “We were fortunate in our situation—we got a conviction, and he’s now in prison for life. That wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t have GCKH to help us through all the legal processes and encourage us to stick with it. Hannah had to testify in the trial, and it would have just been too traumatic to try to get through that on our own. During the whole trial process, there was counseling, as well as the legal assistance. It’s really hard to put in words what they do for families.
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As a mom, having this happen to your child—the shame and the embarrassment and the guilt is just overwhelming. But to have a place like GCKH where they are on your side—where you know that they’re fighting for you and your child is so amazing. They want a conviction as much as you do. They want to see everything work out. They want to see it through to the end. That’s what I felt from day one when we went in there. They directed us every way we needed to go. It was life changing for us. I don’t say that flippantly. Hannah is a functioning adult now. I’m thrilled that she’s willing to tell her story and put it out there to help others. Without the counseling and support that we had at the Kids House, her experience would have been a lot different.” Hope & Healing: A Campaign to Support Gulf Coast Kid’s House Since 1998, Gulf Coast Kid’s House (GCKH) has been providing the community child abuse education and prevention. GCKH combines all of the professionals and resources needed for the intervention, investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases under one collaborative roof. Due to COVID-19, all fundraising events in 2020 to raise money for GCKH have been cancelled, prompting the pressing need for the Hope & Healing Campaign. The Hope & Healing Campaign is an online fundraiser that runs through December 31, 2020. All donations go to ensure the continuation of GCKH’s mission to end child abuse and heal families through collaborative intervention, family support and prevention education. To donate to the campaign, businesses and individuals can visit gulfcoastkidshouse.org.
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