News Room

As Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos obliterated the already-imperfect Title IX, the civil rights law created to protect students in schools and higher education from sex-based discrimination. Title IX was initially meant to protect female student-athletes, and it had became an important tool for student survivors of sexual violence.

“I wondered what can I do to harness the fact that people are willing to talk, they’re willing to do something, and they’re willing to be brave and share their story,” said Aspinwall, who majors in international affairs at the University of Georgia. “How can we take that energy and propel it forward?”

We brought our girls to the Capitol to show them the promise of America, and instead gave them a briefing on its reality.

Dads, we are failing our children.

As men and fathers, we participate in institutions every day that perpetuate a culture of rape. And once a sexual assault occurs, we are often — however unintentionally — a part of the machine that shames survivors, forces them into silence, and isolates them from their communities.

In this episode, the Swain Girls talk with I Have The Right To co-founder about sexual assault, consent, communication, and healthy relationships.

Chessy is a student at Barnard College at the time of this podcast.

Chessy Prout, Co-Founder of national nonprofit IHavetheRightTo, was 1 of the 6 women to work creatively on collaborating with Target on the A New Day + Vital Voices collection. #UseYourPowerToEmpower #TargetxVitalVoices

CBS This Morning Interview with Susan Prout, Mother of High School Sexual Assault Survivor Chessy Prout

Hundreds of thousands of sexual assault survivors are sharing their stories on social media about why they didn’t initially report their attack. Chessy Prout and her mother Susan became advocates for survivors after Chessy was sexually assaulted by a classmate.

“Parents of Survivor and Advocate, Chessy Prout, speak out in order to shift the conversation about Rape Culture”

With a close family friend and advocate inside a Pennsylvania courthouse Tuesday, Susan Prout stayed close to her phone to get live updates from inside the sentencing of Bill Cosby who was found guilty of drugging and raping a woman in 2004.

The allegations against Brett Kavanaugh have compelled people to share their own experiences with sexual assault and why they didn’t come forward. When Chessy Prout was a freshman in high school, she was raped by a classmate. She spoke to authorities, brought charges and suffered a backlash. The author of “I Have the Right To,” Prout joins Amna Nawaz of the PBS Newshour to discuss the shame she experienced.

As the parent of a child who reported her sexual assault at age 15, I am disgusted by the response to the sexual assault allegations brought forward by Christine Blasey Ford about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

An agreement that places St. Paul’s School under government oversight is the first of its kind for an educational institution in New Hampshire and could serve as a model for other states responding to a history of sexual abuse and misconduct at prestigious prep schools, legal experts say.

BOSTON — Responding to reports of sexual abuse and misconduct over a matter of decades, the state of New Hampshire on Thursday opted not to prosecute former employees of St. Paul’s School, one of the most prestigious prep schools in New England, and instead assigned an independent monitor to the campus for up to five years.

In this video made for Stop Sexual Assault in Schools, Alex and Susan Prout discuss how their lives were also devastated by their daughter Chessy’s rape at the prestigious St. Paul’s School and the subsequent trial that attracted national and international attention. Here they offer heartfelt advice for private school parents and families.

In May 2014, while a freshman at the prestigious prep school, St. Paul’s in Concord, NH, Chessy Prout was sexually assaulted. After shedding her anonymity in 2016, Chessy is now sharing her story and hoping to help empower sexual assault survivors. Watch this interview with People Magazine to hear more.

Almost four years after the assault, Chessy Prout shares her experiences with students and administrators on campus post-assault and during the trial.

She boldly states “a teenage survivor of sexual assault shouldn’t be responsible for holding a 162-year old institution accountable for its actions, or lack thereof.”

Chessy Prout speaks out again through her Memoir, I Have The Right To: A High School Survivor’s Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope.

This Vice interview talks about the timing of the book in the context of the growing national dialogue about sexual violence and shares Chessy’s wisdom and empowering messages.

The victim of sexual assault at the prestigious St. Paul’s School when she was only 15, Chessy Prout is now the author of “I Have the Right To,” a new memoir about her assault, trial, and subsequent activism. She tells TODAY’s Hoda Kotb: “I wanted to reclaim my name, reclaim my story. It’s very difficult for a survivor to come forward like this.

After staying silent for more than two years following a high-profile sexual assault case involving an older classmate, the courageous advocate, Chessy Prout, took a giant step into the spotlight when she revealed her identity in an Aug. 30 TODAY interview.