AN
date of testimony: January 22th 2018
location of testimony: Lansing, Michigan
read by court official Ms Liddell
The next victim wishes to be known by her initials, AN.
When I was 18, a senior in high school, I went to Larry Nassar for hip pain. I was a second semester senior that had a spring filled with dance competitions, proms, and my senior dance recital where I was dancing the lead in the ballet production. I was going to college in a big city to study dance. I wanted to make this my career. I needed to know what was going on with my body.
Larry, I came to you as a teenager that just wanted to dance. One of my appointments was a few days before my senior prom and my final dance competition. You told me I had pulled my hamstring in addition to everything else that had been going on with my hip. You asked me how important this dance competition and prom was to me. I was a high school senior, of course both were incredibly important to me. You said you could help me.
You began touching me ungloved underneath my shorts and my underwear. You were pressing on my most intimate areas asking me if I felt relief. I could barely breathe and I was terrified to move but I managed to shake my head so you pressed harder and harder. At one point you stopped, rubbed your shoulder, looked at my mom and said, I’m going to have to claim Workers’ Comp because I have to keep going harder. I was apparently hurting you.
I didn’t get any better. My dancing in college was affected by my injuries and the trauma you caused me. I never danced the same after I saw you, but thankfully I saw doctors after you that are truly the best of the best. They gave me the medical care that I needed so that I could earn a bachelor’s degree in something that I have loved since I was three years old. They got me there.
It has not been easy, though. I have extreme anxiety when I go to doctor appointments. I find it extremely difficult to have medical professionals, masseuses, and physical therapists touch me, even though I know that they are not the bad guys. They are trying to help me, something you never did.
Now I have the honor and privilege to teach the art of dance to children, children that I will do anything to protect from monsters like you. It is an honor to work with young athletes and artists. You tossed that honor, that privilege aside for your own sexual satisfaction. You didn’t care about us.
Thankfully, there are people like me in this world that do care, that will do anything for our kids. I teach my children how to respect themselves, how to be brave, how to speak up.
This summer I became a certified — I became certified as a youth protection advocate and dance instructor. I became a mandated reporter, a position I do not take lightly. I have taken a vow to always put my students first before myself, before reputations, and before established institutions. I vow to do that for the rest of my life.
I will be dealing with the impact of your sexual assault on me for the rest of my life, but like a lotus flower that rises from the mud and breaks the surface of the murky water, I too will continue to rise and grow into something that creates beauty in this world. My sister survivors will do the same, and we will make each other — and we will each make our own impact on the world while you sit and rot for the rest of your life.
THE COURT: She certainly has risen strongly and her words, speaking out, help her healing but I think also bring comfort to her sister survivors and to other victims, so thank her for me.
