The Animation Guild Suspends ‘The Loud House’ Creator Chris Savino For One Year [Updated]

Originally published: Wednesday, May 30, 2018.

Chris Savino, the disgraced creator of Nickelodeon’s The Loud House, has been suspended for one year from The Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839, the trade union that represents animation artists in Los Angeles, California.

It’s the first time that the Guild has ever taken extensive action against one of its members over allegations of sexual harassment. The judgement against Savino, who was fired from Nickelodeon after extensive sexual misconduct allegations, was revealed last night (Tuesday, May 29) to Guild members at a general membership meeting.

The ruling is part of a plea bargain that the Guild made with Savino. These are the full terms of the agreement:

- A one-year suspension from The Animation Guild, effective April 7th.

- Forty hours of community service with an organization of the charging parties choice.

- $4,000 fine, to be donated to an organization of the charging parties choice.

- Certificate of Sexual Harassment training.

- Ongoing counseling with a therapist.

A letter distributed to all Guild signatory studios informing them of the ruling.

Savino, through his legal counsel, pled guilty and accepted the ruling of the Trial Board, which was composed of a half-dozen Guild executive members.

The “charging parties” described above in the agreement are all Guild-represented animation artists. In other words, the charges were brought by Savino’s own colleagues.

The “charging parties” brought up Savino on charges of “disloyalty,” a union member with knowledge of the situation told Cartoon Brew. The disloyalty is to the union constitution that members have to sign when they join the organization.

The language in that part of the constitution is vague – you can read it here – but since the constitution doesn’t have any specific language about sexual harassment, the disloyalty clause was the only part of the constitution where an actual violation had occurred and where Savino’s colleagues could pursue charges.

The trial for Savino was scheduled to begin on April 7, but Savino reached the plea agreement with the Trial Board on April 6. Part of the agreement was that the charging parties could address Savino if they wished, and that he would listen. He waved the right to cross-examine the parties.

So, instead of a trial, a hearing with the charging parties took place on April 7th.

The union member who spoke with Cartoon Brew told the website that this plea agreement is the best possible result, though it probably doesn’t go as far as many members would have liked. There were a number of mitigating circumstances that need to be taken into account. One of the issues is that the charges were not filed properly, something that Savino’s legal counsel recognized early on. And secondly, due to arcane loopholes in union rules, had The Animation Guild kicked Savino out of the union, a union shop could still hire him and then the union would have to pay his dues, a situation that would have been to Savino’s benefit.

“Our Guild wanted to stand up for our membership in a way that other trade unions have not,” the union member told Cartoon Brew. “Actors who have been accused of sexual harassment were never disciplined by their trade guilds. Those guilds decided to leave these matters to the courts. The Animation Guild did not agree this was the correct course of action. Yes, Harvey Weinstein was kicked out the Producers Guild and the Motion Picture Academy, but those are honorary societies – not trade unions.”

Further, Cartoon Brew has been told that the Guild has formed a committee to rewrite its constitution so that it can better protect its membership in the future. The constitution has not had a major overhaul in over 50 years, decades before sexual harassment was a national - and international - issue.

While this plea bargain protects the union membership for the next year, there is nothing that prevents Savino from returning to the studio system afterward, a situation that multiple union members have expressed concern about to me in recent months.

Ultimately, choosing whether or not to employ people who have a history of sexual harassment allegations is a responsibility that falls on the studios themselves. It is each studio’s job to take preventive measures to create a safe workplace environment for their artists that is free of sexual hostility and harassment.

and asked whether the studio currently has any financial or creative relationship in any capacity with Chris Savino.

When asked to comment on the situation, a Nickelodeon spokesperson told Cartoon Brew that “We are not working with Chris Savino”.

The Loud House continues production of new episodes at Nickelodeon, with the series recently having a fourth season ordered, and the network recently announced that it is developing a Latino spinoff set in the same universe, Los Casagrandes.

Update (3/14/2019) - via Polygon:

Women in animation share their #MeToo moment on Full Frontal With Samantha Bee

Call it a #MeToon moment



A group of women in the animation industry got together on Full Frontal With Samantha Bee to share their own animated #MeToo story.

Animators Megan Nicole Dong, Ashlyn Anstee, Katie Rice, Cheyenne Curtis, and Paula Spence recounted the formation of a Facebook group for women in animation that emerged after the Harvey Weinstein exposé. Curtis bravely shared a story, and while she did not name the individual in question, other women came forward, and the group quickly realized that the man was Loud House creator Chris Savino.

After a story on Savino by Cartoon Brew broke, Nickelodeon fired him, but unease still lingered among women in the animation industry.

“There was just this huge anxiety that he was just going to get hired somewhere else,” said Anstee.

Despite many roadblocks, the group banded together and pored over their union constitution to find specific language they could use — there wasn’t anything about sexual harassment — and brought Savino to court with charges of misconduct.

Fortunately, unlike some other incidents of sexual harassment cases coming to light in the past two years, this story has a satisfying ending: Savino was given a one-year suspension from the Animator’s Guild, and a letter detailing his disloyalty to the guild went around to the animation studios.

“You mess with someone’s friends,” said Rice, “and they’ll f**k you up.”

###

From The A.V. Club:

The women artists who got a serial sexual harasser fired from Nickelodeon made a cartoon about it

On last night’s episode of Full Frontal, Samantha Bee admits she’s getting a little #MeToo fatigue. That’s understandable. It’s exhausting and demoralizing to trot out the details of these depressingly similar cases again and again, with little evidence that things are improving. So, in order to shake things up—and give survivors the chance to tell their own stories—she invited a handful of female animators onto the show to explain how they worked together to get a serial harasser fired.

Back in 2017, storyboard director Katie Rice, art director Paula Spence, and storyboard artists Megan Nicole Dong and Ashlyn Anstee all joined a private Facebook group for women in the animation industry that started up after the first wave of the #MeToo movement. Fairly quickly, women started sharing their own stories of abuse, and one particular name kept popping up. As we reported when this story first broke, Loud House creator Chris Savino had a decades-long history of making unwanted advances and threatening retribution against previous sexual partners. Savino has since been fired by Nickelodeon, but the story of how these women worked together to get him removed from the Animator’s Guild and, more importantly, make sure everyone knew about his actions is an inspiring one.

###

From Vulture:

Women Animators Share Their #MeToo Story on Full Frontal

Full Frontal With Samantha Bee did something a little different last night, highlighting one area of #MeToo that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention: the world of animation. Storyboard artists Megan Nicole Dong and Ashlyn Anstee, storyboard director Katie Rice, and art director Paula Spence participated in an animated segment produced by an all-women team, in which they reflected on how one private Facebook group for women animators evolved into Nickelodeon firing Loud House creator Chris Savino due to multiple sexual-harassment allegations. (“He’s like a spider who lures people to his web, and they get tangled in it,” one of the women says in the clip.) Because the statute of limitations for sexual harassment in California is so small, the women couldn’t take any legal action against Savino, so they turned to the next best thing: making sure everyone knew, thanks to help from websites like Cartoon Brew, that Savino had sexually harassed women and shouldn’t be hired by studios, then finding a way to kick him out of the Animation Guild for his behavior. At the end, Rice sums up the whole saga pretty well: “Yeah, uh, you mess with someone’s friends and they’ll f*ck you up, you know?”

###

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Samantha Bee Looks at the #MeToo Movement Through the Lens of Female Animators

“Nerdy cartoonist girls” speak about breaking into the industry and experiencing sexual harassment from male colleagues, particularly Chris Savino, creator of 'The Loud House' on Nickelodeon.
During Wednesday night's episode of Full Frontal, host Samantha Bee gave her take on the #MeToo movement utilizing the perspectives of a group of female animators who share common stories of sexual harassment.

Beginning the segment, Bee said, “The #MeToo movement has totally reshaped the media industry and those accused are taking time away to make amends for their actions,” adding, “Joke, they’re on TV yelling into Gayle King’s face!” in reference to R. Kelly’s interview with the CBS news anchor where he screamed as he fought back against sexual assault charges.

Bee continued, “It is hard to keep talking about this shit. That’s why we asked some talented animators to draw it.” A clip was then shown featuring storyboard artists Megan Nicole Dong and Ashlyn Anstee, first talking about finding an ability to express themselves through animation, before considering their experience with sexual harassment in the workplace.

Striking a serious note, art director Paula Spence says in the clip, “I think #MeToo is waiting to happen in every industry if you look around.” At that point, words flash onto the screen: “This is a #MeToo story as told by a group of Fed-The-Fuck-up Female Animators.”

Against a backdrop of an animated story starring “nerdy cartoonist girls,” the women speak about breaking into the industry and experiencing sexual harassment from male colleagues, particularly Chris Savino, creator of The Loud House on Nickelodeon.

Many stars have worn a "Time's Up" pin in support of the non-profit organization that works to advocate for a "safe, fair and dignified work for women of all kinds."

As the women speak about their experiences, they reference a statement given by Savino after the Animation Guild got involved and the women banded together to ensure Savino heard their accusations. "You shouldn't say, it wasn't your intention, because whether it was your intention or not, 15 women felt harassed by you," said Anstee.

At a trial that occurred within the guild, one of the women said of Savino, "I was able to tell him, 'I wish I had never met you,' and that was something I thought I would never be able to do."

Another gave a metaphor to illustrate her experience, "That trial was me with my women army and there's this sword that's stuck in the ground, I'm trying to lift it but I can't, and then a bunch of hands come in to help." Following the accusations, which transpired in 2017, Savino was initially suspended for sexual harassment and later fired from Nickelodeon.

Watch the full segment [above].

###

From Popsugar:

These Female Animators Are "Fed the F*ck Up" With Sexual Harassment, and Ready to Risk it All

In the era of #MeToo and Time's Up, and following the fall of Harvey Weinstein, women in Hollywood have banded together to shed light on the unspoken atrocities which too-often occur behind closed doors. Such is the case with this group of female animators, who are featured on the March 13 episode of Full Frontal. These women bonded together on Facebook, and in turn, identified a common experience of alleged harassment from a male colleague: Chris Savino. We're sharing an exclusive first look at their story.

The ripple effect started when storyboard artist, Cheyenne Curtis, detailed her experience with Savino to the private Facebook group. Even her close friends in the community were unaware of Curtis's claims before she made them. "Something came over my body; my hands just started typing frantically. It wasn't thought out, it was just years of pent up feelings." Curtis said. "People knew exactly who I was talking about and I didn't need to say who it was."

Curtis's allegations led to several other women coming forward with their own reports against Savino. Risking their own success and putting their careers on the line, these women teamed up, made their claims against Savino public, and brought their concerns to the guild. He was fired from Nickelodeon, following the accusations of inappropriate behaviour from a dozen women, and suspended by the guild, thanks to the efforts of these female animators.

To hear from the animators themselves, including Curtis, watch the full video above. Fun fact: the whole segment was shot, produced, directed, and animated by women.

###

From Fast Company:

Sam Bee asked female animators to draw their #MeToo stories on her show
BY JOE BERKOWITZ1 MINUTE READ
“I think #MeToo is waiting to happen in every industry, if you look around,” art director Paula Spence says at the top of a video from this week’s Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.

One corner of the entertainment industry whose #MeToo moment has bubbled relatively under the radar is the world of animation. While Emma Thompson rightly earned plaudits for refusing to work with ousted Pixar head John Lasseter at his new gig leading the animation arm of Skydance, there are plenty of unsung heroes among the female animators Lasseter and his ilk actually preyed upon. Many of those women got a chance to tell their stories–in their own style–in the Full Frontal segment entitled “#MeToon.”

Billed as “a group of fed-the-fuck-up female animators,” the creators of the video illustrate what it was like to band together in the wake of the Weinstein scandal to address their own personal Weinstein. (It’s Chris Savino, creator and erstwhile showrunner of Nickelodeon’s Loud House, and an alleged sexual abuser.) The video walks viewers through the formation of a whisper network to name their aggressor and banding together to confront the animation guild to do something about it. Best of all, though, the video is suffused with clever touches, like a flash of the Weinstein Company logo comprised of a middle finger, that emphasize the creativity and verve these animators bring to the table, the kind that’s in danger of being squelched by the predators in their–and every other–industry.

Have a look at #MeToon [above]:

###

Update (6/6) - From BuzzFeed:

“‘I’m Sorry’ Is Not Enough”: Inside The Union Trial Of An Alleged Sexual Harasser

How Women Artists Used Their Union To Punish An Alleged Sexual Harasser

Women in the animation industry watched their colleagues overlook male artists’ sexual harassment allegations for years. After #MeToo, they made sure it wouldn't happen again — and they think their story can serve as an example for other unions.

Cheyenne Curtis was nervous before the Animation Guild meeting. She and 10 other women had spent months pursuing formal disciplinary action against onetime Nickelodeon golden boy Chris Savino, and on May 29, they would finally get their answer.

In April, 11 artists and animation professionals read statements at a hearing saying the Loud House creator had leveraged his stature in the industry to sexually harass women for nearly 14 years. Five of the women said he had harassed them directly; six said they had witnessed the effect he had on their friends, or on the animation industry as a whole. Nickelodeon had fired Savino in October, in the heat of #MeToo. For years, these women watched other men in the industry bounce back after allegations of sexual harassment or even sexual assault. They didn’t want Savino’s firing and the allegations to be forgotten.

Their months of work could have been erased at the general membership meeting on May 29. “At the end of the meeting, the president asked, ‘Does anybody want to lower his sentence or dissolve it?’” Curtis, 31, told BuzzFeed News. The guild proposed a one-year union suspension for 46-year-old Savino; a $4,000 fine; community service; mandatory counseling; and a letter to all signatory studios explaining that Savino had been suspended. In total, 93 members signed an affidavit calling for guild charges.

Standing outside the guild’s offices in Burbank, California, Ashlyn Anstee, a 29-year-old storyboard artist, said that when the guild’s president asked the packed meeting room whether any member wanted to lower or eliminate Savino’s sentence, “There was laughter. And then there was a long pause.” Curtis said some people booed. The punishments for Savino stood.

And with that, studios “can’t hide behind the fact that ‘we didn’t know what was going on’ anymore,” said Anstee, whose best friend, Curtis, had kept her interactions with Savino secret from her for years. The oldest allegation of sexual harassment made at the guild hearing was by BoJack Horseman director Anne Walker Farrell, 35, who said in her statement that Savino tried to convince her to send photos of her breasts and pressured her to engage in explicit conversations about her sex life from 2004 to 2005, when she was in her early twenties and just starting out in the industry.

Curtis testified that Savino offered her mentorship when she was just starting her career in 2012, and then kissed her in a car without her consent. “Chris kissed me even though he knew he had power over me with his career and his age. I felt, and still feel, that his true intent was never to help my career, but to help himself to me,” she said in her statement. Joanna Leitch, 33, testified that Savino talked at length about busty nurses and their colleague’s breasts in his darkened office in 2014 as she felt compelled to be polite to him out of concern for her career. The most recent allegation made at the hearing was from 2017.

Taken together, the 11 statements, Anstee said, showed a pattern of behavior. The last speaker, Jessie Greenberg, 28, a Cartoon Network employee who works with interns and art students, said Savino’s actions had even rippled outside animation itself to young people thinking about their careers: “These potential guild members are now scared to enter this industry because of a man that formerly inspired them,” she said in her statement.

Savino did not respond to multiple requests for comment from BuzzFeed News.

In the lead-up to the hearing, “we were hearing the words ‘witch hunt,’” said Megan Nicole Dong, the 32-year-old artist who wrote the affidavit seeking charges against Savino. In fact, Dong said, rather than vigilante justice, she and the others wanted official justice through an official hearing at a central governing body of the industry. They got what they wanted. And they think their story can serve as an example to other unions.

The revelations about Savino began with a cryptic post on Facebook. In the days after the New York Times first revealed film producer Harvey Weinstein to be an alleged serial sexual harasser on Oct. 5, 2017, Curtis joined a just-formed group for women in animation. “I don’t know what came over me,” she told BuzzFeed News. “My hands just started typing.”

What she wrote was vague — she had never told anyone but her therapist the details before. She described a powerful showrunner and his dimly lit office; she said he had offered her mentorship when she was starting her career in her early twenties and then pressed her for a sexual relationship. It wasn’t much information, but it was enough that some other women in the group recognized the unnamed man. Stacy Renfroe, 43, a recording studio manager at Cartoon Network, said she read Curtis’s post and told her, “I know exactly who you’re talking about.” She would testify at the hearing that years earlier, she herself felt obligated to listen to stories about Savino’s sexual fantasies and porn preferences because she had just started a new career in animation.

Savino took over as the showrunner on Cartoon Network’s The Powerpuff Girls in its final seasons; he was a director on the Disney XD series Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil. The series he created for Nickelodeon, The Loud House, has been such a ratings success for the network that a spinoff, Los Casagrandes, was announced in March, months after his widely publicized firing.

BuzzFeed News spoke with five women who said Savino used his stature in the industry to sexually harass them. They stated that Savino leveraged a power imbalance to ensure they went along with his lewd suggestions and come-ons. Four of the women who testified that he harassed them said that before October 2017, they believed they were more or less the only people he’d ever had inappropriate interactions with. Curtis had believed there were other victims, but she also believed that she was powerless to stop Savino.

When Dong, who’s an administrator of the Facebook group, saw in October that there were multiple women with stories about Savino, she got the contact information for human resources at Nickelodeon so she’d know where to send them. (She herself did not have direct negative interactions with Savino.) The actual number of women who reported incidents to Nickelodeon is unknown; industry news site Cartoon Brew reported “as many as a dozen,” but the 11 women interviewed for this article were convinced the number was much higher. Cartoon Brew wrote on Oct. 17, 2017, that Savino had been suspended. “We take allegations of misconduct very seriously, and we are committed to fostering a safe and professional workplace environment that is free of harassment or other kinds of inappropriate conduct," Nickelodeon said in a statement.

And after she read about Savino’s suspension on Twitter, Farrell started tweeting, becoming the first person to publicly accuse Savino of sexual misconduct. “I was furious that he was still doing this to other women,” Farrell told BuzzFeed News. “It was this period of 48 hours — this storm. I went from ‘Hey, here’s this event in the distant past that happened, I think I was one of the only ones, I feel kinda crappy about it’ to ‘Oh my god, we’re an army.’”

By Oct. 19, Savino had been fired from his show. The next week, he posted on Facebook that he was “deeply sorry and ashamed,” and wrote, “Although it was never my intention, I now understand that the impact of my actions and communications created an unacceptable environment.”

“Oh my god, we're an army.”

When Dong discovered language in the Animation Guild’s constitution that she believed would allow for a relatively transparent industry trial for Savino, she was cautiously optimistic. Because his alleged behavior went on for more than a decade, at multiple studios, Dong was dismissive of the apology Savino posted on Facebook after his firing. “I think ‘I’m sorry’ is not enough,” she said.

There are provisions in their guild’s bylaws allowing for a fair trial for member conduct that shows “disloyalty,” including “disloyalty to this Local, and/or disloyalty to fellow members.” Using the statements of several victims, Dong wrote up an affidavit in December; 93 members of the guild signed it. They’re allowed to discuss it publicly.

The transparency of the proceedings appears to be unprecedented in Hollywood. In the deluge of sexual harassment and assault revelations that began with Weinstein in October and quickly inundated the nation, many victims have had little formal recourse. Complaints to HR departments may lead to action — or not — but regardless, they’re shrouded in secrecy, to protect employees’ privacy and avoid defamation lawsuits. Allegations may be too old for criminal prosecution or a civil lawsuit.

The Directors Guild of America, SAG-AFTRA, and the Writers Guild of America West did not directly answer BuzzFeed News’ questions about their own internal policies regarding sexual harassment disciplinary action. While the DGA announced it was bringing charges against Weinstein in October, it never openly said they were related to sexual harassment and assault; Weinstein ultimately resigned from the guild. SAG-AFTRA said it does have an internal mechanism that could be used to discipline members for sexual harassment, but “the process is confidential.” A spokesperson for the WGAW quoted the union’s statement of principles: “WGAW is a union, not judge or jury, and cases of harassment and discrimination should be adjudicated in a court of law or through legal policies of employment.”

Four women with their own Savino stories — Curtis, Farrell, Leitch, and Renfroe — agreed to testify at the guild trial. They would be joined by six supporters who also worked in the industry: Anstee, Aminder Dhaliwal, 29, Dong, Greenberg, Sarah Marino, 31, and story artist Kennedy Tarrell, 24. An 11th woman would contact Curtis the day before the hearing, alleging that Savino harassed her; she would read a prepared statement as well.

“The ones who really spearheaded it were the ones who weren’t victims,” Curtis said. Dong explained that she was trying to take on some of the burden for the rest: “I’d had my own experience when I was younger,” she said. “I felt very isolated.” Each woman who spoke saw her role as supporting the others, particularly Farrell. “My employment’s stable. I’m also a white, heterosexual cis lady. I don’t get a lot of guff,” the director said. She thought to herself, I’ve been in nerve-racking situations before. I can do this. And if I can stand up and do this without my voice shaking, then some of the other women with me who might be more scared or younger than I am can stand next to me, and we’ll hold each other up.

To call for charges, though, the union members had to submit “a sworn affidavit,” according to the guild’s constitution. Chris Allison, a storyboard artist at Warner Bros., told BuzzFeed News he had told Dong he’d help get more member signatures; he estimates he got a dozen or so people involved, and drove two of them to the signing himself. “I feel like I’ve learned so much in the last year about trials and tribulations that I don’t have to go through, and it just seems really shitty,” he said. “The bare minimum I could do, since I don’t have to deal with this, is just go to coworkers, and say, ‘Hey, do you want to go to this thing? I can drive you.’”

Allison, along with around 40 other people, was kicked out of a UPS store after they arrived around 6 p.m. and tried to get their signatures notarized — there were too many people. Dong called a mobile notary public who notarized the document, one signature at a time, out of the back of her car in the parking lot of a Chuck E. Cheese’s. It took hours. The next day, dozens more people met at a public library.

After they submitted the affidavit to the guild, a trial was initially set for March. If Savino disputed the charges, then he’d have the opportunity to directly question anyone who gave testimony. The women involved at that point — all 10 of whom would have to not only see Savino but agree to answer his questions — met a few times to work on their statements. “We were put in this awkward position where, all of a sudden, we were faced with being questioned by the person who had sexually harassed us,” Farrell said. “It was unpleasant.” At one point, they split the cost of an attorney to address their concerns and help review their statements. The attorney questioned them as if she were Savino. The day before the trial, a guild representative told the women that Savino wouldn’t contest their charges, after all.

On the day of the April 7 hearing, the women met in the morning to steel themselves as a group. “When we went in, we all went in in unison,” Tarrell said. They spoke roughly in chronological order. Several of the women cried when they gave their statements, according to multiple people who were present. After a few hours of testimony, a member of the trial board said it was time for a break. As the 11 women briefly conferred, Savino said they should all keep going because he thought they had excellent momentum going. Farrell turned to him, said “shut up,” and told the trial board they could use a break. Dhaliwal said, “It was kind of this comedic moment I needed. I can’t imagine anyone else saying ‘we’re making great momentum’ at their own sexual harassment trial.”

Of the people testifying, Greenberg spoke last. “I feel it is absolutely my duty to inform you all of what I see going on at the ground floor of animation,” she said. She works with interns and students, she said, and some of them read news stories about Savino and felt afraid of the industry. Greenberg said in her statement that the guild’s disciplinary action needed to be transparent to demonstrate to aspiring artists that sexual harassment was not tolerated in the animation industry.

After the women finished, Savino himself made a statement. Exiting the guild membership meeting May 29, several of the women confirmed that the guild said that Savino’s closing words would be excluded from any transcript of the hearing. However, people present in the room described his statement as a half-apology during which he referenced BuzzFeed News's reporting on Ren & Stimpy creator John K's sexual abuse.

The women had discussed what to do if he offered them any kind of apology; walking out of the room did not seem proper, so Tarrell said she suggested turning away from him. When he began to speak, the 11 women turned their backs on him — and so did nearly all of the dozens of people in the audience. The artist who had contacted Curtis to speak at the trial just the day before, who asked not to be named in this story, said it sent Savino a message: “There was no way he could manipulate us anymore. None of his strategies would work anymore. … I don’t want to look at you. I don’t have to look at you, ever again.”

“He thought that his power over us was so strong,” she said.

For a long time, it was. But something has clearly shifted in the animation industry. Curtis spoke with BuzzFeed News Aug. 3, 2017, in a meeting that was at the time off the record. She spoke vaguely, saying that some young women in the industry were “the target of older men” and alluding to a powerful older man she first met when she was “just this intern.” When asked to elaborate, she flatly refused to do so. She told BuzzFeed News this spring, a #MeToo movement later, that she spent years feeling too scared and ashamed to speak up about Savino.

Now, she’s choosing to set her fear aside. “I’m tired of hiding,” she said. ●

--Ends--

Originally published: Wednesday, May 30, 2018.