What is the most abusive thing you've ever witnessed that was never brought before a lawyer?

I once punched a co-worker as hard as I could, right in front of five or six other employees. Obviously I should have been arrested and fired, but neither happened. I simply left the break room, and that was the end of it. I was about 24 at the time, and it was the first and only time I’ve struck someone in anger as an adult.

My wife was raised in a ridiculous Evangelical cult of sorts. Her step-dad was abusive (and that was never addressed), and her mom turned a blind eye and put her in the stupid cult in the first place (I can never really get past this when I see her). She was taught women were inferior in their one-room school house, and suffered lots of “monkey” references by her teacher and father (she is half-black).

Despite how bad all this is, she was incredibly smart and strong-willed. She ended up being offered scholarships to Princeton and Brown, and was accepted at other prestigious colleges based on her SAT/ACT scores without ever applying. At age 16. Her parents did not allow her to attend because she was…female.

She still doesn’t have a college degree at age 34, despite years of taking classes on and off. She left the cult at age 18 and was convinced she was going to be killed by God for it, because that was what she was told would happen. So she entered the world with that mentality, convinced she would die soon but willing to accept that to avoid continuing in the cult.

I’m getting upset writing this. She is a staunch atheist now. She emerged the least scathed of many others. Her “graduating” class was 6 people. 3 of them are dead. Many others she still associates with from then, and frequently their children, are very screwed up. Even the ones that aren’t on the fringes of society with drug, relationship, and mental health issues, are often very obnoxious, weird people.

Not everyone was ruined, there are some that are fine that learned how to deal with the abuse.

I would wish the cult leaders and at a minimum her father would be imprisoned.

One of the science teachers in my high school sexual harassed a string of girls over the course of his 20+ years of teaching. He was reported by about half of them, but nothing was ever done. Eventually, he stopped being discreet about it at all, making comments in class with all the rest of the students present. He was finally fired for striking a student.

When I was 5 years old I went into the school bathroom and some much older native kid was there. I don’t remember exactly what he said or did to me, as I’ve mostly blocked the memory, but I just remember being terrified. I never ratted him out but in all honesty if I saw the piece of shit today I’d probably jump him.

In highschool I saw one of my friends get his nose broken for no reason other than that he pissed off some wannabe thug type. Same thug also once smashed someones head through a plate glass window. One of the thugs friends used to put out his cigaretts on his girlfriends arms (she told me this herself, and I saw the scars.)

Another time another thug almost drowned a kid in a rain barrel during a fight.

None of these incidents resulted in any legal actions. Suspensions from school at the most, and most of it was treated with a very blasé attitude by administration.

Stay classy, small town Canada.

abortion.

My abuser died before I finally admitted to what he had done to me so he never had to face any kind of punishment. It was probably for the best though,if I had reported it, it would have ripped my family apart.