I Have the Right To

March 12, 2018
In this honest and raw memoir, Prout shares her experience as a 15-year-old victim of sexual assault by an older student at New Hampshire's St. Paul's School in 2014. With a sometimes confusing structure, Prout chronicles her first (and final) year at the boarding school. Leading up to the assault, she writes about battling homesickness, navigating a rocky friendship, and struggling to find her place at a school where, she perceives, "everything was about status, tradition, and hierarchyâand guys ruled all three." She also reflects on surviving a terrifying earthquake in Tokyo in 2011, where she temporarily lived with her family. Prout's descriptions of her assault and its crushing emotional aftermath (involving self-doubt, guilt, shame, peer ostracizing, and cyber-bullying) and the agonizing, widely publicized trial that resulted in her assailant's conviction on some, but not all, charges brought against him, are wrenching and painful. Readers will take away a deep appreciation and admiration for Prout's resilience as she transitions into a resolute crusader for the empowerment of victims of sexual violenceâand for its prevention. Ages 14-up. Agent: Abigail Samoun, Red Fox Literary.

April 1, 2018
As a 15-year-old, Prout was sexually assaulted at an elite New England boarding school, a crime that would make the national news before she made the decision to go public with her identity and reclaim her story.Prout takes readers behind the headlines in this candid and inspiring memoir of her assault and subsequent journey to justice and healing. After a childhood in Tokyo with her biracial (Japanese and white) father, white mother, and two sisters, Prout joined her older sister at St. Paul's, where a social system based on privilege and status allowed misogyny to flourish unchecked. As a freshman, Prout was raped by a popular senior boy who took her on a "Senior Salute," a ritualized school tradition wherein seniors tried to "score" younger students before graduation. Prout recounts her traumatic experience and its prolonged aftermath--the bullying and ostracization she endured upon her return to St. Paul's and the well-publicized trial--in honest and gut-wrenching detail. Prout acknowledges her privilege as a "white, straight, blond-haired girl from an upper-class family" that supported her unconditionally and explains that she wants to use her voice to help create a culture in which all survivors of sexual assault can feel empowered to speak out.Powerful, essential reading for all high school and college students, parents, and educators. (author's note, resources, letter from the Prouts, note from co-writer, acknowledgements) (Memoir. 14-adult)

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