Alex Harrison waited a dozen years for one more chance to be believed.

The first time he testified, he was a guilt-ridden college tennis player who had alleged that his revered high school coach had abused him. But the criminal case ended in a mistrial, the coach was a free man, and Harrison — ostracized by his teammates, his friends’ parents and his insular hometown in Marin County, Calif. — descended into anxiety and self-doubt.

By the time Harrison swore to tell the truth last week, circumstances had changed. His former coach, Normandie Burgos, was in prison after being sentenced to 255 years to life for molesting two other tennis pupils. Harrison had become a prosecutor in Southern California, and gone public in The New York Times about his trauma. And now, Harrison was taking the stand in his own civil case against his former school district, accusing it of being negligent.

“I didn’t understand how to reconcile who he was with what he had done,” Harrison told jurors during testimony over two draining days, sometimes breaking down in tears. “At that time, as a kid, I hadn’t been a prosecutor. I hadn’t been an adult. I didn’t have life experience like I do now.”

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It is hard to overstate how much has changed when it comes to reporting sexual abuse in youth sports since Harrison talked to the Mill Valley Police Department in 2006 to warn his community and protect other students, in vain.

If you know someone who has been the victim of clergy abuse, or if you experienced this unacceptable violation yourself, know that there are now support groups that help you tell your story.

The legal system is now going after abusive priests, unlike the scenario even a few years back. The church has mandated that all sexual abuse allegations be reported to law enforcement agencies. It is now a lot easier for victims to be heard and get their abusers to be held accountable.

Read on to know how you can deal with abuse by a clergy member.

Report the Incident

The first thing anyone should do after being a victim of clergy abuse is to report it to a law enforcement agency. They also need to ask for medical care, which includes getting access to resources for mental health issues as well.

Many people are frightened to report such

The Archdiocese of Seattle said Thursday it will pay $375,000 to settle two separate claims of sexual abuse in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Roman Catholic archdiocese said in a news release that it settled a case involving allegations of childhood sexual abuse in the early to mid-1970s by David Pearson, a volunteer at St. Joseph Parish in Issaquah. Pearson has died.

The archdiocese also said it settled a case involving an allegation of sexual abuse by Father Paul Conn in about 1987 when he served at Queen of Angels Parish in Port Angeles.

Conn served as a parochial vicar at Queen of Angels from 1985 until 1988, the news release said. In 1988, the archdiocese said it learned of sexual abuse allegations and passed