(Professor Christine Blasey Ford; Sep. 27th, 2018. Source: C-SPAN)
Today, students across the country have been sitting at the edge of their seats, anxiously awaiting the outcome of testimony that will have lasting impact on the lives of sexual assault survivors and perpetrators, and on the course of US history.
Christine Blasey Ford, the first woman to publicly come forward and accuse Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, stepped up to the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday morning to begin her testimony.
The hearings have spoken volumes in classrooms, including those at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, which took a break from its daily activities to watch the hearing live as “history is being made.”
As Ford testifies, many students are speaking out in solidarity with Christine Blasey Ford and advocating greater support for sexual assault survivors, some using hashtags like #IBelieveSurvivors.
While some support Ford’s testimony and stand with her, others–including President Trump and Republicans on the committee–question her credibility. They see a politically-motivated attempt to prevent the nomination based on recollections of events that occurred more than 30 years ago.
Even so, many women have come forth and said they’ve had to live with the impact of sexual assaults for their entire lives, and that there are many reasons why cases don’t gettalked about for years after the fact.
The Senate Judiciary Committee could decide whether to nominate Kavanaugh as early as Friday morning.