{"id":12131,"date":"2021-06-14T23:53:33","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T06:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=12131"},"modified":"2021-06-15T06:10:22","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T13:10:22","slug":"post4-52","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=12131","title":{"rendered":"“The Protector”, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/span>David W. Chen, Cover Story, Sports Monday, June 14, 2021<\/span><\/p>\n

Alex Harrison survived child sexual abuse at the hands of his high school tennis coach. Now he is seeking justice, for himself and others.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. \u2014 It was late in a long, agonizing day of testimony, and the defense lawyer wanted to know if the young man on the witness stand felt ashamed after his high school tennis coach gave him a massage.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old witness was testifying as John Doe to protect his identity. He said he was more embarrassed than ashamed. He never wanted his coach to touch him. He should have said something.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really saw myself as wanting to be a leader,\u201d said Doe, three years out of high school and dressed in a suit. \u201cI was the team captain of the tennis team in my senior year. I had been an editor. \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

People in the gallery began to snicker.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll ask you to leave the courtroom if you cannot maintain your composure,\u201d the judge warned.<\/p>\n

Doe gathered himself. The people in court had been his teammates and friends and their parents. Now they were ridiculing him simply for saying what his coach had done to him when he was a teenage boy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

When the courtroom quieted, he continued. \u201cI feel that someone who\u2019s a leader wouldn\u2019t, you know, allow someone else to do something that they were uncomfortable with.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case ended in a mistrial, and the coach was set free. But John Doe would remember that day, would remember how it felt to tell the painful truth and then be cross-examined and mocked.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/picture><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
The Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, Calif., where the first trial was held.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Marlena Sloss for The New York Times<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

More than a decade later, Doe is speaking out again, this time in his own name: Alexander Harrison.<\/p>\n

In an interview near his new job here, and in phone interviews over the past year, Harrison, now 35, chronicled his journey: how his coach exploited him and crushed his spirit; how he lost faith in institutions; and how he then turned to institutions to hold the coach accountable.<\/p>\n

Now it is Harrison who protects others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n