OPINION - EDITORIAL

Others say - High school’s long reach

Many Americans are struggling to sort out the conflicting accounts from a suburban Maryland party that occurred more than three decades ago. In only a few days, the controversy has riveted Americans. It also has become a teaching moment for young people who may not understand that, a popular cliché to the contrary, life is long.

The case we’re discussing dates to the early 1980s yet reverberates today in accusations and denials. Christine Blasey Ford, now a 51-year-old college professor, says Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were high school students at that party.

Kavanaugh denies the accusation. “This is a completely false allegation,” he said in a statement. “I have never done anything like what the accuser describes—to her or to anyone.” Others vouch for Kavanaugh’s character. A letter signed by 65 women who knew Kavanaugh in high school says that he had “always treated women with decency and respect.”

Whom do you believe? Some Americans already have made up their minds. They may resolve ambiguities by defaulting to their political affiliations or to their pre-existing opinions of the gravity of such behavior at a young age. They

may be suspicious of the timing of this allegation, which emerged days before a scheduled Senate committee vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination. Or they may feel that there should be a statute of limitations on the repercussions of alleged high school conduct that went unreported at the time.

So far this is certain: Ford has shown courage by stepping into the national spotlight. Her life will never be the same. Nor will Kavanaugh’s.

Sure, we realize that everyone who has ever attended high school probably did something to regret. Often many somethings. And we know that many Americans, now well beyond high school, may have thought that their conduct back then was sealed and irretrievable. Even if questionable behavior came to light, no one would care. These people, now adult men and women, may have believed that what they did in their youth—for good or ill—would not trail them into adulthood.

Wrong.

Today, in the era of Facebook and Twitter and sexting, adolescents can’t too strenuously be warned to be careful.

The Kavanaugh case will be resolved soon. Whatever happens, there’s no statute of limitations on the lesson here: Before, during and after high school, personal conduct, wise and otherwise, reveals character.

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