THE CHESSY PROUT STORY
In 2014, Chessy Prout was a freshman at St. Paul’s School, a prestigious boarding school in New Hampshire, when a senior boy sexually assaulted her as part of a ritualized game of conquest. Chessy bravely reported her assault to the police and testified against her attacker in court. Then, in the face of horrific backlash from her once-trusted school community, she shed her anonymity to help other survivors find their voice. One person at a time, Chessy built a circle of survivors who took a magnifying glass to the institutions that turn a blind eye to such behavior and a society that blames victims rather than perpetrators. She decided to use her voice and refused to be ashamed or silenced. Chessy writes about her experiences in her memoir I Have the Right To: A High School Survivor’s Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope. #IHaveTheRightTo started as her social media campaign to engage participants to be a positive force of change and bring safety and respect to all cultures. Since its inception, many have come forward and given their experience, intelligence, resources, and passion to take “#IHaveTheRightTo” and evolve it to a new organization that promises to be the safe place where survivors and families of survivors can come to find support, belief in their accounts of what has occurred in their lives, advocacy for their rights, and a loving community that is growing every minute around the world.