Bleed Until You Heal

32- Prom Kings

"My name is Jasmine Whittaker and I was a teacher's assistant for Dr. Sebastian King during the 2001-2002 school year at the Art Institute of Atlanta. After the first two weeks of working with him, he had approached me in my office and started hitting on me. When I politely rejected his advances, he had told me that he would put a good word in for me for the art gallery and that with his advocacy, I could do great things as a photographer. I had agreed to a sexual relationship with him for glowing recommendations in return. This relationship went on for the rest of the school year, for about six months."

"Did you ever try to get out of the agreement?" I ask the girl in front of the camera.

She nods, biting her lip. "Yes, I tried multiple times but he said that if I stopped, he'd fire me and then ruin my reputation. I couldn't afford to lose either my TA job or my credibility in the art world. It's already so competitive, it'd be nearly impossible to make it anywhere if I got on Dr. King's bad side."

"Did he ever physically attack you?"

"No," She says, looking into the camera.

"Why did you agree to the agreement in the first place?" I ask from off camera. Abby is standing behind the camera making sure that it's filming everything right but we're the only three people in the room. Jasper, Scott, and Haven and a few of the girls are downstairs in the living room but I don't want any more people than necessary to be up here in my room during the interviews because I feel like an audience will make the girls feel more uncomfortable than necessary.

"He had told me that it was just going to be one time and that I could get into the winter expo, which is so huge. And he had a gallery opening up in New York and told me that he'd put in a good word for me when he conversed with all of his photography buddies at the opening. I thought that it'd just be one time. But then he came to me again about a week after that and when I tried to turn him down, he threatened my already invisible reputation. I couldn't afford to say no."

"Did you ever have romantic or sexual feelings for Sebastian King?"

"No," She looks sick to her stomach and I feel bad for making her go through this but I just keep telling myself that it's for a good cause.

"Where did Dr. King take you to engage in sexual intercourse?" The words feel so weird in my mouth but Noah had his dad help him type up these questions so that they sounded professional, like the questions that a lawyer would ask on the stand in court.

"It varied," Jasmine sniffles. "Most of the time it was his house, sometimes his car, sometimes it was even his office."

"Did you ever get a say in when or where the intercourse would take place?" I read off of the paper in front of me.

She shakes her head and wipes some tears from her eyes. I hand her a tissue, wishing that I could take away all of the humiliation and pain she feels right now. "No, it was always spontaneous and he controlled everything about it."

"About how often would you say the intercourse occurred?"

"Probably about once a week, sometimes two or three times," She explains.

"Okay. Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you'd like to add?" I ask with an encouraging smile, trying to show her that it's over now.

"Yes," She says. "To whoever is watching this, I'm actually begging you to fire this man. This isn't consensual sex, he's coercing these girls by making them think that they don't have a choice. And it absolutely ruins them but they're too young to realize what they're doing to themselves. He's ruining these girls. You have to help them."