Mar 30, 2014 2 min read

I was once a domestic violence victim, now I am a domestic violence survivor. What changed? My attitude. I didn’t do anything wrong. I worked a full-time job and I cared for both my toddlers when the violence began.

I’ve crusaded for years to get the policies and procedures changed in this state – in this country – to make child support a mandatory extension of divorce. I tried to talk to legislators about changing things and, no surprise, I was told basically it’s still an “old boy network” and I just needed to volunteer to speak to other domestic violence survivors to enlighten them on what assistance is out there for them. Let’s just say, 11 years after my divorce, I’m still waiting to find out what programs are available to me and my children because nothing has ever been offered.

I hope other domestic violence survivors didn’t find the court system as barbaric as I did and I hope they found programs to help themselves and their children. It’s sad when a society still seems to brush such an ugly crime under the carpet because it’s just easier than making changes to help children and keeping every adult accountable to those children.

Kathleen E. Marshall

Burgettstown