Accountability. Healing. Hope.I cannot stay silent.I have not stayed silent.As a mother, licensed Special Educator, and therapist.My cries for help were ignored.The adults knew.My bones were broken and ignored.Nothing happened.I am forever changed.When powerful men harm children and women, and are not held accountable, the damage does not end with the abuse. It imprints on the nervous system. It alters brain development. It shifts immune functioning. It changes the trajectory of a life.This is not emotional exaggeration.It is neuroscience.It is longitudinal public health research.The Adverse Childhood Experiences research shows that early abuse is strongly associated with increased depression, addiction, autoimmune disease, heart disease, and shortened lifespan. Four or more adverse experiences significantly raise the risk of chronic illness in adulthood.CDC ACEs Research:https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/index.htmlNeuroscience confirms that prolonged childhood trauma heightens the amygdala’s threat response, disrupts hippocampal processing, and can impair prefrontal regulation. Chronic exposure to stress hormones like cortisol increases inflammation and keeps the body in survival mode.National Child Traumatic Stress Network:https://www.nctsn.org/what-is-child-traumaThis is why accountability is not optional.It is not political theater.It is nervous system justice.It is public health protection.When systems protect power instead of children, they retraumatize survivors. When men who commit horrific crimes are shielded by influence or wealth, the message to every survivor is clear: your pain does not matter.That must end.Accountability is not revenge.It is restoration of safety.It is protection for the next child.It is a cultural line in the sand.I am forever changed.And I am not powerless.Neither are We.Healing is real. The brain has neuroplasticity. The nervous system can regulate. Trauma can be integrated. Survivors can thrive. I see it in my clinical work. I live it in my own life.But healing does not replace justice.We can hold both:Compassion for survivors.Consequences for perpetrators.We can build trauma-informed systems in our schools, courts, and communities.We can demand transparency.We can believe survivors.We can stop protecting abusers because they are powerful, connected, or convenient.Collective ActionIf you feel called to act:• Contact your state and federal representatives and demand stronger enforcement of child protection laws and transparency in cases involving abuse.• Support survivor advocacy organizations such as RAINN or local sexual assault crisis centers.• Advocate for trauma-informed training in schools, law enforcement, and judicial systems.• Vote with children’s safety in mind.• Refuse to normalize silence when harm is exposed.Change happens when citizens refuse complicity.Intergenerational HealingWhen we hold perpetrators accountable, we are not only protecting today’s children. We are interrupting cycles of trauma that echo across generations.Unaddressed abuse does not disappear. It transmits through nervous systems, parenting patterns, attachment styles, and health outcomes. When we choose truth, accountability, and trauma-informed systems, we change the trajectory for children we may never meet.That is generational healing.I cannot stay silent.I have not stayed silent.And I will continue to stand for every woman and child whose body was violated and whose voice was dismissed.Accountability.Healing.Hope.All three are possible.Shajen Joy Aziz, M.Ed., M.A.Licensed Special Educator and Therapist We can hold both:Compassion for survivors.Consequences for perpetrators.
Shajen Joy Aziz 