News Room

By Alexander Prout
New Hampshire Union Leader
3 min read

THE SCOURGE of sexual violence is one of the biggest issues of our time.

We are grateful that Michael Delaney withdrew his nomination last week for the First Circuit
Federal Court of Appeals. And we are encouraged that the voices of survivors and their
supporters have been heard.

By Jim Puzzanghera
Boston Globe
6 min read

Former New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney on Thursday withdrew as a nominee to serve on the First US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston amid controversy over his role as a lawyer in a notorious sexual assault case.

By Jim Puzzanghera
Boston Globe
7 min read

California Senator Dianne Feinstein’s absence from the narrowly divided chamber the past several weeks has stalled Democratic efforts to confirm more judges, including the controversial nomination of a New Hampshire lawyer for a seat on the US First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

By Jennifer Bendery
Huffington Post
10 min read

Abortion rights groups won’t even talk about Michael Delaney. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee won’t weigh in, either.

For the first time since becoming president, one of Joe Biden’s judicial nominees may be in real trouble.

By Jim Puzzanghera
Boston Globe
7 min read

Chessy Prout does not believe powerful people will do the right thing.

By Marianne Levine
Politico
3.5 min read

Several liberal advocacy organizations are expressing serious doubts about President Joe Biden’s nominee to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, highlighting his handling of a school sexual assault case.

by Marissa Tansino
WMUR New Hampshire
1 min read

The Senate judiciary committee is considering former New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney for a federal judge nominee.

By Jeremy Diamond and Lauren Fox
CNN
10 min read

Two weeks after President Joe Biden’s nominee for a prized federal judgeship appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, a majority of Democrats on that panel have yet to commit to supporting his nomination.

By Jim Puzzanghera
The Boston Globe
6 minute read

In many ways, former New Hampshire attorney general Michael Delaney was a logical choice to be nominated to a vacancy on the US First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, and at first he appeared to be on a glide path for confirmation.

By Alexander Prout and Susan Prout
Asheville Citizen Times
3 minute read

Before former New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney went before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, we hoped the hearing would be a referendum on progress since the #MeToo movement. That Delaney still has a shot at serving on a federal court bench means we are falling far short of making any meaningful progress.

His nomination shows me and other survivors of sexual assault that the Biden administration approves of what Delaney and St. Paul’s School put me and my family through.

by Chessy Prout, The Boston Globe
3.5 minute read

By B.R.
Daily Wire
5 min read

Last week, senators grilled President Biden’s judicial nominee Michael Delaney about the aggressive tactics he used against a child sexual abuse survivor while representing St. Paul’s boarding school. Mr. Delaney asked a court to publicly reveal the identity of a child sexual abuse survivor that sued St. Paul’s under the pseudonym “Jane Doe.” Mr. Delaney’s tactics sadden me, but they don’t surprise me.

By Carrie Campbell Severino, National Review
3 minute read

Yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing did not go well for Michael Delaney, President Biden’s nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Delaney was repeatedly pressed by Republican senators over his role in pushing to publicly name an underage female victim of sexual assault while representing a prep school in Concord, New Hampshire, in a case he litigated.

By Tierney Sneed, CNN
5 minute read

The confirmation of President Joe Biden’s nominee for a prestigious federal appeals court seat could be in jeopardy after he was grilled over his role representing an elite boarding school in a sexual assault case and a key Senate Democrat withheld his immediate support.

By  Esther Warkov, MS. Magazine
5 minute read

This article chronicles the growing efforts to address K-12 sexual harassment and violence over the last decade and references Chessy Prout as a survivor-advocate whose case received international attention and advanced the movement in middle and high schools. There are links to films, print media, and resources that are helpful to students, parents, and educators.

by Yvonne Abraham, The Boston Globe
4 minute read

His supporters say federal appeals court nominee Michael Delaney is a dedicated advocate for sexual assault survivors. The family of one high-profile survivor would beg to differ.

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.

Chessy Prout, high school sexual assault survivor, talks new memoir and activism.

By Yvonne Abraham, The Boston Globe
4 minute read

Shame is a powerful thing for victims of sexual assault.

It’s what keeps so many of them in the shadows, afraid to identify themselves and risk further pain and harassment — their motives, veracity, history, and clothing choices scrutinized and judged.

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.

By Nestor Ramos
Boston Globe
6 min read

Victims advocates and legal observers expressed consternation on Monday about a New Hampshire prep school’s request to reveal the identity of a teenage sexual assault victim if her family’s lawsuit against the school reaches trial.