Annual Walk to Stop the Silence Draws Crowds

A record crowd showed up to march against childhood sexual abuse Saturday in Watsonville.

More than 450 people went to the fifth-annual . The walk was presented by the Survivors Healing Center, a nonprofit organization that provides therapy, resources and education for survivors of sexual abuse and their allies. Event organizer Maria Rodriguez-Castillo says this year's turnout was the largest yet.

"It has grown each year. We have more children and more families participating this year, and we have more elected officials," said Rodriguez-Castillo. "The first year we did the walk, we had just 150 people. The numbers have tripled."

Several nonprofit organizations also made an appearance, including Bikers Against Child Abuse, Si Se Puede and the Brown Berets Autonomous Chapter. The White Hawk Danza Azteca group led the parade in a lively display of feathers, drums, conch shells and pre-Columbian dancing.

“Childhood sexual abuse is a worldwide epidemic,” said Amy Pine, a psychotherapist who co-founded the Survivor’s Healing Center back in 1987 with Ellen Bass. “It’s perpetuated in an environment of secrecy and silence.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control, one out of three girls and one out of six boys experience some form of sexual abuse before age 18. The Survivors Healing Center advocates community awareness about child sexual abuse, which in turn helps survivors break their silence.

“So many times when children tell people they’ve been abused, it gets kept silent; that's why we are trying to bring awareness to the community—it’s the only way to end the abuse,” said Jean Sumner, a board member for the center who drove down from San Francisco for the walk.

“That’s what is happening in this whole movement now—this gives people an opportunity to speak,” said Kim Allyn, retired Santa Cruz County deputy sheriff. “Ninety percent of survivors stay silent their entire lives. I was among the 10 percent that didn’t.”

Allyn speaks openly now of the sexual abuse he suffered as a 9- to 11-year-old altar boy at St. John’s Catholic Church in Felton.

“The abuse went on for two years," he said. "I told my parents, and they did nothing.” 

Allyn and five other former altar boys sued the Catholic Church in 2006 and reached a $3.5 million settlement agreement. He tells his story in the movie Boyhood Shadows, a documentary about male child sexual abuse, which recently screened at the Nickelodeon Theatre in Santa Cruz as a fundraiser for the Survivors Healing Center, and he has also appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

“It’s not like we’re just this group set aside; we’re everybody” said Misa Leonessa, a life coach who is on the Friend’s Committee for the Survivors Healing Center. "We are your friends, your brother, your sister. It’s very prevalent." She says many victims of childhood sexual abuse stay silent because of shame, fear and internalized blame.

“It used to be something that was kept secret and tolerated, because people were threatened as kids,” she said, adding that she thinks the Walk to Stop the Silence provides a safe place for survivors of abuse to speak out and realize that it is not their fault.

“When people get help, often times it's with lots of shame, and often times we wish there had been services for us when we were teens," said Ama Delevett, therapist and assistant program director for the Survivor’s Healing Center. "The sooner people can get services, the faster they can rejoin their life, their body."

Delevett pointed out that substance abuse is a common occurrence in survivors who never get the services they need. 

After the march, the crowd gathered Saturday morning in the plaza to hear speakers, which included Mayor Daniel Dodge, county Supervisor Greg Caput, Chief Manny Solano and members of the Women’s Crisis Support.