He admits that he, too, had been captivated by the teacher that Cheryl had a relationship with, but when Cheryl reveals to him the romantic nature of her relationship, Pierson seems stunned and apologetic toward her for accepting it as normal back then. And I love that., Victim-blaming and minimization of abusive damage, as Keep This Between Us points out, are embedded within rape culture. It was overwhelming. 686, This story has been shared 636 times. It becomes apparent early on that theyre not going to reveal the perps or his ex-wifes identity. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction. So where is Meyers now? Clues in the narrative make him discoverable as Sylvester, a middle-grade author and a professor at Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho, where he continues teaching, although the school does not provide his faculty contact information. If youre being complimented by your teacher in a way that makes you uncomfortable. Realizing that, she added, was kind of one of the biggest shifts and changes for meand my ass was definitely handed to me on that a lot.. Because this affects all of us, either directly or indirectly.. 697, This story has been shared 686 times. When she finally confronts her own abuser, though he doesnt agree to participate in the film, he responds to her solely to express how he, too, was a victim in the situation. We also emailed Brad, the coauthor, to let him know we were pulling them, and why.. The sexual abuse campaigner says Australia has decriminalised rape and addressing pornography consumption is critical. Join the Observer community and help support pic.twitter.com/AEtBwELRDi. Cheryl Nichols documents her relationship with her high school teacher when she was just 16 years old in the new Freeform docuseries "Keep This Between Us." Freeform "Dearest Pony: OK,. While [grooming] is kept in the dark, while its kept in the background, its able to continue, she said. And therefore simultaneously the hardest thing for a child to explain, let alone prove, and the easiest thing for perpetrators to deny.. We don't want this splashed on the news. (Instead though, Nichols successfully proves that many adult male groomers are master manipulators who are able to casually play off their actions or even try to convince others that they were the one taken advantage of.) When Will 'Yellowstone' Season 5 Continue? Nationwide News Pty Ltd 2023. I immediately started thinking about what happened to me, and how I wanted to come forward, and frame my story. Youre wise beyond your years. Though that might have been true, there were people who used that as a justification to take what they wanted from me and to treat me the way that they wanted to.. To Nichols, the most damaging narrative Americans carry about teenage girls usually comes down to six words: She knew what she was doing., I think a lot of times we believe that teenage girls are young women. We think the likely answer to this clue is DONTTELL. just between us. I didn't really have a frame for it, but I knew that I had never seen a documentary about teacher/student sexual relationships. Opening Shot: A woman in a very tight close-up says with a wavering, tearful voice, I have something to get over that wasnt totally my fault. As a high school student in Little Elm, Texas, she and her fellow theater kids gravitated to a particularly magnetic theater teacher who the students all loved. Can you talk about how you were victim blamed even by your classmates? "I'm watching #KeepThisBetweenUs, a documentary about Louis Sylvester, a high school teacher who apparently groomed and abused a high school student. "Really the defense's strategy is to kick the can down the road until I give up," Heaven says in the documentary regarding how many times the trial has been pushed back. When the harrowing revelations about Harvey Weinstein first broke in 2017, Cheryl Nicholsexecutive producer and subject of the Freeform docuseries Keep This Between Usremembers reading the coverage in her living room. Find out more about our policy and your choices, including how to opt-out. As she peels the layers back on her painful experience, she speaks with another victim, Florida native Heaven Rubin. We don't want to believe that we're not okay. Cheryl Nichols, who grew up in a small town in Texas, alleges in the four-part series, Keep This Between Us, that her high school drama teacher groomed her from the age of 16, maintaining a relationship with her until she entered university. Despite the charges filed against him, this case still hasn't gone to trial. The documentary also talks about how our culture struggles with seeing teenage girls as children, which they actually are, and that even you had difficulty thinking of yourself as a child. From 1999 to 2001 drama teacher Louis Sylvester had inappropriate relationships with his teen students. In 2008, it was first brought to the principal's attention at Krop that Meyers was having sexual relations with his students. In addition to Nichols, the series second subject is a young survivor named Heaven Rubinwho brought the Miami-Dade School Board to court for its response to her own allegedly inappropriate relationship with a teacher when she was 17. This has been happening for so long that I think when the #MeToo movement came around, that was really one of the first times that we realized how deeply this was ingrained in us as children. Meyers is currently out on bond, per NBC Miami. Henry Holt Books for Young Readers scrapped plans to publish The Crooked Door, a horror novel by Brad McLelland and Louis Sylvester, following reports that Sylvester had an inappropriate relationship with a teenage girl while teaching in Texas. Meyers continues to deny the allegations against him. Most Pilot-y Line: He made me feel like I was smart. Bare minimum stands: dont publish pedophiles, Ursu commented. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY and the PW Logo are registered trademarks of PWxyz, LLC. Helpful. The main case on which the doc is centered unfolds in Little Elm, TX and is told mostly from the victim, Cheryl's perspective. [I knew it was wrong] when it became an actual physical thing it was at his house a bunch of theatre kids would go there periodically and he and his wife would have us over and they would cook for us. So They Took Their Kids and Disappeared. I wondered that the entire time, and I don't know that I totally have an answer. Metadata on Macmillans site presently lists only McLelland as creator of the Lost Causes series, although Sylvesters name still appears on print covers. Here's a look at a trailer for the documentary series "Keep This Between Us:" You can watch the show when it airs the first part on Monday, August 29 at 9 p.m. and the second part on Tuesday . Mrs. Sylvester is a teacher at Jersey Village High School. Any glaring warning signs were overlooked because of her admiration of a man who she thought was a dear mentor which is common among victims of grooming, according to Americas largest anti-sexual violence organisation, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). Does anyone know who this sicko is? Stream It Or Skip It: 'Bird Box Barcelona' on Netflix, a Spanish Spinoff of the Surprise Sandra Bullock Sci-fi Hit, Bird Box Barcelona Ending Explained: What That Cliffhanger Could Mean For Another Bird Box Movie. She got an immediate response from Holt saying they would get right on removing our blurbs from websites, metadata, etc. He currently works @LCSC in Idaho. But despite knowing this, the school board allowed Meyers a quick way to try and cover his tracks. 1.0 out of 5 stars Keep this between us Louis Sylvester creep. He is currently a professor at Lewis and Clark State College in Idaho. Keep This Between Us posits that young women in high school are so used to an expectation that they should seek out - and be flattered by - male attention, that a culture of grooming is. At its core, this is a womans story, and the story of so many women like her, and it seeks to raise awareness of an issue that has irreparably changed the course of so many lives, and is never truly acknowledged or addressed. That feeling, for me, was comforting because it allowed me to reframe the things that had happened to me in a way that was more about me being out of control of the situation, rather than being responsible for the situation. [It's] the person that did the thing that's wrong. The suit claimed that Meyers had groomed at least eight current and two former students between his time working at the two schools and while the school district was made aware they continued to let it go under the radar. He was just easy to be around and he enriched the parts of my life that needed enriching. In 2016, Heaven pressed charges against her former English teacher Jason Meyers, who she claimed sexually abused her while she was a student at Miami Palmetto Senior High School. Cheryl Nichols. To call your entire person into question. This is how you apologize. 303, This story has been shared 255 times. The girls feel like they have so much to lose by coming forward, that it's better just to shove this under the rug. Whatever the reasons the doc has for doing this (legal or otherwise) I cant relax knowing this guy might be a free member of society. In October 2021, the civil case against the Miami-Dade school board went to trial. Oct. 17, 2022. In 2016, he was arrested after Heaven and her parents decided to press charges against him for sexual battery, but is he still behind bars awaiting trial? Nichols goes back to her small hometown, talks with former high school classmates and teachers, and attempts to understand the relationship she had with her teacher which started when she was only a teenager an experience which would permanently alter the course of her life. For the first part of making this documentary, it was just me and my partner, Ari [Basile]. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. ET Source: WPLG Local 10 One of the most coveted designations in the book industry, the Kirkus Star marks books of exceptional merit. Maybe that's a sensational thing to say, but I did not understand how to honor myself in those kinds of ways. To set up immediate access, click here. Sign up now. Our Call: STREAM IT! (Heaven alleges that Meyers, her English teacher, abused her when she was 17. Heaven Rubin, now 25, was sexually assaulted by her English teacher Jason Meyers when she was 17. The main case on which the doc is centered unfolds in Little Elm, TX and is told mostly from the victim, Cheryls perspective. I think sometimes the victim blaming amongst the girls at my school was really just about self-preservation. Macmillan Childrens Publishing Group in turn released a statement saying, Brad McLelland has decided not to go forward with the publication of The Crooked Door. Sign up for our Children's Bookshelf newsletter! Some people dont need to come forward in order to process [something like] this, Nichols said. #SIOSI. Copyright 2023 Salon.com, LLC. Can you talk about that? However, this is a potentially triggering and traumatic topic thats not for everyone, so be warned. keep to ourselves. A logline for the first episode of the series reads, As an adult, Cheryl reexamines an inappropriate relationship she had with her high school teacher, a phenomenon she soon realizes is nationwide., In a tweet earlier this month, author and illustrator Erin Entrada Kelly wrote, Im watching #KeepThisBetweenUs, a documentary about Louis Sylvester, a high school teacher who apparently groomed and abused a high school student. I have thought long and hard about the best path forward for me and The Crooked Door since this painful information blindsided us all, he wrote. By Kelly Corbett Sep. 1 2022, Published 4:48 p.m.