Scott Slone
I began speaking about my abuse after a breakdown in 2019 during therapy. For decades, I carried the weight of what happened to me as a child, abused by my parish priests and by my best friend’s father. Men who were supposed to represent safety, faith, and trust instead shattered both my innocence and my belief in justice.
Growing up, I kept silent, internally struggling with fear, threats, and shame. Those years of silence came at a cost: to my safety, my peace, my connection with God, and more times than I can count, nearly my life. I was living in the shadow of their choices, while they went on.
But I no longer carry their shame. My voice belongs to me now, and I’ve arrived in a place where I can use it.
In my recovery, I’ve learned that healing begins when we speak with honesty and intention. Abusers count on silence to protect them. The moment we speak up, whether to a therapist, a friend, in writing, or publicly, that silence breaks. Speaking up saved my life, and I’ve seen it save others, too.
But healing cannot stop with personal recovery. We need systemic change. Alaska’s statute of limitations still limits survivors from pursuing justice after decades of silence, even though delayed disclosure is a well-documented part of trauma. We need reforms that recognize how long it takes to come forward, and we must train our law enforcement to handle abuse reports with empathy and trauma-informed care. Too many survivors are dismissed, retraumatized, or turned away when they finally find the courage to speak.
Our courts must evolve, too. Survivors should not have to relive their abuse under hostile questioning in depositions or trials that treat their pain as evidence to be picked apart. Justice should heal, not harm.
Alaska holds one of the darkest records in the nation for sexual abuse, nearly six times the national average for child abuse. That’s not just a statistic. It’s a mirror of what silence, denial, and broken systems leave behind.
That’s why I founded Mighty AK: to unite survivor voices, expose truth, and push for real change in Alaska. This isn’t about me; it’s about all of us. It’s about Alaska survivors refusing to be silenced any longer. It’s about creating a justice system that listens, protects, and restores.
Our stories are not just stories of pain; they are proof of survival. Together, we can turn those stories into the force that reshapes Alaska’s future.
Scott Slone / Founder, Mighty AK