The recent vote for the release of the Epstein files offered something rare in today’s political climate: a bipartisan moment of clarity. For once, lawmakers from both parties stood together to shine a light on abuse that powerful institutions hid for decades and elevated the voices of victims who had been ignored, dismissed, or silenced.
That unity was meaningful, but as encouraging as it was, the reality is that the problem extends far beyond one man or one set of documents.
Across the country, a painful and lingering stain remains for victims of childhood sexual abuse that occurred in institutions we were taught to trust. Survivors include those abused by members of the clergy, students at public and private schools, student athletes betrayed by colleges and universities, and children harmed within the foster care and juvenile justice system.
Though each of their stories differs, the pattern is heartbreakingly similar, where vulnerable children were left unprotected, and institutions became more focused on preserving their own reputation than safeguarding children.
We often do not understand the full scale of abuse or the systems built to hide it until survivors step forward through civil lawsuits, often taking decades, if survivors decide to even come forward in the first place. Civil litigation provides one of the only mechanisms that forces open the curtain and compels institutions to produce records, answer questions, and face accountability. This process gives the public a clearer picture of how this abuse occurred, how to prevent abuse from happening again, and exposes perpetrators still in the community.
However, none of this happens automatically, and right now, that ability is at risk.
Hellbound and Down 
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