TIMES UNION REPORTS – During the Walk of Warriors event Saturday, people were able to share their stories of abuse and walk around the old courthouse against sexual, emotional, mental and physical abuse.
Organizer Stephanie Puckett said she is planning on making the event an annual one. There is a Facebook page called “We are Warriors” for it.
Puckett said her daughter chose the name Walk of Warriors because anyone who has been through any type of abuse is a warrior.
Puckett’s daughter said Saturday’s event was to help girls and boys to know there’s help for those who deal with abuse.
There was a raffle during the event that raised $404 for the Warsaw Police Department. Puckett said her daughter wanted to raise money for the police department because when she was assaulted, the WPD handled the situation well.
Jasmine Capps said she was a victim of sexual abuse, with one of her mother’s boyfriend being her abuser.
She said she didn’t really have a father figure and didn’t really know what love from a father figure was. She didn’t realize right away what was going on.
When Capps told her mother, Capps said her mother didn’t believe her. Capps was told she had an active imagination.
Capps’ mother got into a fight with her boyfriend, where he threatened to lock them in the house and burn the house down before he would let them go. The police were called and he was arrested. Then Capps was allowed to tell her story.
He was sentenced to six years in prison and served seven months, she said.
Melanie Ambrose said she experienced sexual abuse in her family and she was 23 before her mother found out. A letter was found that Bradley wrote, and her mother asked if a relative had ever abused her. When she said yes, her mother said that relative abused her, too.
Ambrose said her heart broke at that because the person that was supposed to protect her kept putting her in the same situation by having her watched by that relative.
She wasn’t taught any coping mechanisms. She started using drugs in middle school. She is now six years clean. She is working on a bachelor’s degree in substance abuse crisis intervention.
Looking back on things, because people always asked her why she didn’t say anything, Ambrose said a young girl doesn’t know how to tell people how a relative touched them, especially when she was continously put in the household. She didn’t know she would even be believed.
She’s open about what happened to her. Some of her relatives have cut off communications with her because they didn’t see the abusive side in that relative.
It took her a very long time for her to realize it’s not OK for people to put their hands on you, but it is OK to stand up. Bradley said she believes more people than not have experienced some sort of abuse, whether that’s sexual or other type of abuse.
“We need to stop the silence,” Ambrose said. If the silence is not stopped, the stigma will not end and there will be more victims and “there will be an entire generation we have failed because we let their predators, their abusers … go unpunished.”
If people act scared or start or acting out, people need to recognize the symptoms. She said adults are there to protect children. Learning the signals of abuse or abusers can help.
An abuser can be a man or woman, although men are eight times more likely to be an abuser.
After the raffle and people shared their experiences, those in attendance walked from Center Lake to around the old county courthouse.
