In her new memoirs, which are available “People”, Selma Blair (49) reveals a trauma that haunts her to this day. The actress was molested by a dean when she was 15.
In “Mean Baby,” Blair writes that she thought of the then-popular dean of the Cranbrook Boarding School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, as “the greatest man I had ever met.” She trusted him as an authority figure and had no idea what was happening. “He broke me, I never felt safe once more,” Blair said.
Teacher kissed the actress
The incident happened just before the Christmas break in 9th grade. Blair wanted to say goodbye to him and brought him a small gift in the office: “We hugged. It was too long and too quiet. His hand felt along my spine to my tailbone. Then his lips were on my mouth». It didn’t stop there. In her mind, Selma Blair begged at the time: “Please don’t, you’re an adult and I love you. Please don’t touch my pants. But that’s exactly what he did.”
Blair clarifies in her book that the dean “did not rape or threaten her.” But although nothing similar ever happened once more following that, the attack turned into a trauma. Also because of the reaction of her mother, to whom she reported the crime. “When I told Mom that he kissed me, she took a deep breath. And then told me not to tell anyone regarding it. She said, ‘He’s very popular at school and you’re just a rebellious girl. I’m sorry.>”
Selma Blair started drinking when she was a child
After leaving school, the dean came to both of them and congratulated them: “He said to my mother, ‘You must be so proud!’ She looked at him with an icy face and replied, ‘I know what you did – stay away from mine daughter away›. He left without a word!”
The actress also reveals that she started drinking alcohol regularly as a child – starting when she was seven: “I don’t think I would have survived my childhood if I hadn’t been an alcoholic. Alcohol was my mainstay, my comfort mechanism.”
She was then raped in her early 20s while under the influence of alcohol. It happened on a trip during spring break. “I made myself small and quiet and waited for it to be over. I wish I might say what happened to me that night was an isolated incident, but it wasn’t. I’ve been raped several times because I was too drunk.” (cth)
Find help here
The Offered Hand:
Anonymous advice in compliance with confidentiality.
By phone 143 and online www.143.ch.
Castagna counseling center for sexually exploited children, young people and women and men who were exploited in childhood:
044 360 90 40, www.castagna-zh.ch.
Victim Support Switzerland: www.opferhilfe-schweiz.ch
The Offered Hand:
Anonymous advice in compliance with confidentiality.
By phone 143 and online www.143.ch.
Castagna counseling center for sexually exploited children, young people and women and men who were exploited in childhood:
044 360 90 40, www.castagna-zh.ch.
Victim Support Switzerland: www.opferhilfe-schweiz.ch
