Family and friends of 23-year old Daisy Coleman reacted with sorrow and shock last week following her death by suicide.
“She was my best friend and amazing daughter,” her mother Melinda wrote in a heartbreaking Facebook post. “My baby girl is gone.”
For those who did not know Daisy, but who know her story, there remains work to do. Her death highlights the many ways the criminal justice system too often fails victims of sexual assault, many of whom suffer a lifetime of wide-reaching effects from the trauma they endured.
Now we must recommit ourselves to seeking justice, which is a real thing, with real-life consequences. In Daisy’s case, too many grown-ups turned a blind eye for far too long.
The outline of the Daisy Coleman tragedy is now internationally known, in part because of reporting by this newspaper and by other journalists. Coleman alleged that she was sexually assaulted in 2012 at the home of Matthew Barnett, a senior at Maryville High School and the grandson of a prominent local politician.
Coleman was 14. She was given alcohol to drink. She was left outside in freezing temperatures after the alleged assault. At least two other boys were involved, as was a 13-year old victim, a friend of Coleman’s.
Charges were filed against Barnett but were mysteriously dropped by the local prosecutor. Coleman and her mother, on the other hand, faced months of ridicule and harassment that eventually forced them to move to another home.
Publicity about her case brought enormous pressure on prosecutors to reexamine the young girl’s nightmare. In 2014, after special prosecutor Jean Peters Baker reviewed the evidence, Matthew Barnett pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child endangerment in the case.
He also apologized.
Coleman’s life was shattered by the incident, and she struggled to recover from it. She found some solace in aiding others by helping create SafeBAE, a student-led national organization committed to ending teenage sexual assault. Healing is not a straight path or an easy one. She fought longer and harder than we will ever know.SafeBAE statement
That work was deeply important. But it apparently couldn’t erase all the demons Daisy faced, SafeBAE said last week.
“Healing is not a straight path or an easy one,” the organization said on Twitter. “She fought longer and harder than we will ever know. But we want to be mindful of all the young survivors who looked up to her. Please know that above ALL ELSE, she did this work for you.”
As Melinda Coleman explained on Facebook, “She never recovered from what those boys did to her and it’s just not fair.”
The struggle with trauma isn’t over in a week, or a month, or a year. It doesn’t end when the headlines fade. Daisy Coleman’s death reminds us that counseling and treatment are essential for assault victims and must continue for years and often for decades.
