With news of Prince Andrew’s arrest, it is even clearer that the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse deserve justice and healing.
During the recent testimony of the U.S. attorney general to the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., was right to ask her to face the survivors also in attendance. Why? Because justice must include treating survivors with respect and demanding accountability for the people who traumatized them.
And, healing requires acknowledging what they already have endured and why they are still fighting to be properly seen and heard.
Valencia Walker
Being seen and heard, however, should be on their own terms — not from failing to redact their identities in the files being released by the Department of Justice. We know some of the survivors were children when they were traumatized by powerful men (and women). Not redacting their identities is more than an unfortunate mishandling of their privacy; it is a painful reminder that people in power are not prioritizing their protection.
As a pediatric subspecialist physician who cares for sick and vulnerable kids, I have taken care of children who have experienced trauma due to medical diseases, physical injuries and psychological abuses. With the right medical treatments, I have done my best to give every child a real chance at a medical miracle. What I know for certain is that even when we have successfully healed the acute injuries, there are the chronic scars that will remain.
When we ignore those scars — whether visible or hidden — they can fester and permanently disfigure a child. Sometimes, both physical and psychological wounds simply reopen and won’t heal despite our best interventions. Traumatized children are at very high risk of becoming adults who survived adverse childhood experiences but suffer from high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, pregnancy complications, depression and a litany of other chronic and costly health problems.
Perhaps that is why Nobel laureate and author Toni Morrisson wrote that, “What you do to children matters. And they might never forget.”
Maria Farmer and Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Prince Andrew’s alleged victims, never forgot how Epstein and others traumatized them. Virginia bravely shared how the abuse she endured as a child left her with chronic scars she carried into adulthood. Still, it took decades for people to start listening and demanding accountability, including accountability from the DOJ.
“These monsters always have other people shielding them from accountability while simultaneously looking away from the vulnerable children desperately in need of protection.”
In the last couple of years, the relentless push from people across the ideological spectrum helped propel the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act into law. Introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., the law is a necessary step toward unraveling the byzantine network of powerful people Epstein used to avoid punishment for his depraved behaviors.
Because Epstein is not the only monster who has abused children. And these monsters always have other people shielding them from accountability while simultaneously looking away from the vulnerable children desperately in need of protection.
There are still missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls like Maleeka and Emily who deserve justice. Liam and Amalia are only two of the thousands of children physically and emotionally scarred by decades of failed efforts at immigration reform across Democratic and Republican administrations. The entrenchment of structural violence has made trauma and despair virtually inescapable for Black children like “Izzy” Tichenor, who died by suicide in 2021.
That same year, suicide became the third leading cause of death for Black youth aged 10 to 24, with suicide rates among Black adolescents increasing faster than other racial and ethnic groups. All these children must be seen and heard too. Their physical and psychological wounds need care wrapped in empathy that acknowledges what they have also endured.
The survivors of Epstein’s abuse have proved the impact of their resilience and advocacy to bridge political differences and excise any evil that hides in places of unchecked power and corruption.
So, if a British royal can be held accountable, now is not the time to “get onto something else” as the DOJ and some U.S. leaders want us to do. All children should be able to live in a society that keeps them safe instead of one that allows monsters to terrorize and traumatize them. We can only provide that protection for them when we become part of a collective shield that uses our combined strength to fight for our children together.
We don’t have to agree on everything to know when we agree on keeping kids safe, we can actually do something about protecting them.
Valencia P. Walker is a Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project in partnership with the National Black Child Development Institute.