Sarah Jean

On the way home from school one fall day in Chicago, the leaves on the tall oak trees were turning vibrate colors like orange, and yellow. Sarah-Jean was walking home with a few of her classmates, one of them was the incorrigible Daryl Jones. Daryl had been held back a couple times and now he was two years older than the other of the kids in the ninth grade. Not to mention that he was not an attractive young man, the kids always made fun of him, calling him ugly or “the dark monster.” Daryl was that kid that liked to chase the girls on the playground and when he caught them, he would try to get a kiss. In class he sat behind Sarah-Jean which made her life hell. Whenever the teacher wasn’t looking, he would pull one of her ponytails. Sarah-Jean asked the teacher to move her seat several times, but the teacher would not. One afternoon the class had to rearrange their seats for a class project and unfortunately Daryl was placed next to Sarah-Jean, and that was a recipe for disaster. As the class worked on the Science project, Daryl, was up to no good. Daryl whispered to Sarah-Jean “do you want some candy?” Sarah-Jean being gullible replied yes! Daryl whispered, “put your hand under the table”, and she did. Daryl grabbed her hand under the desk put his penis in her hand, she had no idea what she was holding but she knew it wasn’t candy. Dr. Shapiro showed a reaction to what Sarah-Jean just conveyed to her. Her next question to her was “did you tell anyone what happened?” “No, I did not, I was embarrassed and confused.” Next Dr. Shapiro asked how did the incident make her feel, did she feel responsible? Sarah-Jean answered “It made me feel dirty and nasty, in fact I asked the teacher to excuse me to the bathroom; where I scrubbed my hand at least ten times with soap and water. And I did feel like it was my fault for attempting to eat snacks, which was clearly against the classroom rules. So yes, I did feel responsible.” Dr. Shapiro went on to explain to Sarah-Jean about shame and guilt and how we sometimes take responsibility for other people’s actions.