



I Have the Right To
A High School Survivor's Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope
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4.4 • 29 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
“A bold, new voice.” —People
“A nuanced addition to the #MeToo conversation.” —Vice
A young survivor tells her searing, visceral story of sexual assault, justice, and healing in this gutwrenching memoir.
The numbers are staggering: nearly one in five girls ages fourteen to seventeen have been the victim of a sexual assault or attempted sexual assault. This is the true story of one of those girls.
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 unexpected backlash from her once-trusted school community, she shed her anonymity to help other survivors find their voice.
This memoir is more than an account of a horrific event. It takes a magnifying glass to the institutions that turn a blind eye to such behavior and a society that blames victims rather than perpetrators. Chessy’s story offers real, powerful solutions to upend rape culture as we know it today. Prepare to be inspired by this remarkable young woman and her story of survival, advocacy, and hope in the face of unspeakable trauma.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this honest and raw memoir, Prout shares her experience as a 15-year-old victim of sexual assault by an older student at New Hampshire's St. Paul's School in 2014. With a sometimes confusing structure, Prout chronicles her first (and final) year at the boarding school. Leading up to the assault, she writes about battling homesickness, navigating a rocky friendship, and struggling to find her place at a school where, she perceives, "everything was about status, tradition, and hierarchy and guys ruled all three." She also reflects on surviving a terrifying earthquake in Tokyo in 2011, where she temporarily lived with her family. Prout's descriptions of her assault and its crushing emotional aftermath (involving self-doubt, guilt, shame, peer ostracizing, and cyber-bullying) and the agonizing, widely publicized trial that resulted in her assailant's conviction on some, but not all, charges brought against him, are wrenching and painful. Readers will take away a deep appreciation and admiration for Prout's resilience as she transitions into a resolute crusader for the empowerment of victims of sexual violence and for its prevention. Ages 14-up.)
Customer Reviews
Empowering and eye-opening
This book is so incredibly important. It is empowering and comforting for fellow survivors, and informative for both survivors and supporters alike. I wish I’d had this to read when I was in high school. Perhaps then I’d have not only been able to properly seek resources after my own assault in college, but maybe it also wouldn’t have taken me two years to even realize that my encounter was in fact an assault, and then subsequently report it. I am inspired and empowered by Chessy’s story, and have since found catharsis in writing about my own assaults.
Thank you, Chessy Prout. You are going to change the world, and I am honored to be part of your generation.
Not accurate
As a former student of St. Paul’s, I can confidently say that this book is a wild misrepresentation of the school, the faculty and the students. It is unfortunate that Chessy felt the need to grossly mischaracterize the school at so many students enjoyed some of the best years of their lives.