The Ugly Truth

Some people will never want to do the right thing

Nashville, Tennessee

One of the saddest things about writing what happened to Grant, Gracie, and Angie, is seeing how terribly ugly the truth can be.

When Gracie Solomon was just 11 years old, she told her school, her family, and her friends that her father Aaron Solomon had raped her, after sexually abusing her for years.

That is an ugly truth.

Gracie also described her father drugging her with a special lemonade at night to make her sleepy. Both children complained that Grant's bedroom at their father's house locked from the outside, while Gracie's room locked from the inside—all to avoid Grant's interference with Aaron’s sexual abuse at night.

The children's friends stated seeing Gracie in a visibly drugged state, unconscious on her father's lap, in scenes that made them equally uncomfortable and worried for her safety. There were, in fact, multiple reports made by concerned friends that Aaron was abusing his children, and these were usually quickly dismissed by the same DCS that's been plagued by reports of abysmal failure to protect Tennessee's most vulnerable citizens for at least 20 years.

You might think that's all more than enough to take a child seriously about sexual abuse, but Angie was one of the very few adults to ever take her children seriously. An overwhelming number of adults who heard their complaints instead protect the man Gracie's called a monster—as if she and her late brother Grant have been mere troublemakers for a church, a school, and their former news anchor dad.

School administrators bullied little Gracie to “squash” her testimony, complaining that other students were affected and asking about the words sexual abuse. At least two of Grant's teachers relayed a myriad of concerns about the way Aaron Solomon treated his children, but said headmaster Robbie Mason ordered school staff to ignore any complaints from the Solomon kids.

Just listening to the audio of former Grace Christian Academy’s school counselor Amy Curle and elementary principal Rona Branson tell Angie how they tried to get Gracie to stop talking should horrify anyone who hears it.

Yet… it doesn't.

We know it doesn't horrify everyone because for years, people have dismissed the complaints and protected Aaron from all allegations against him.

That is all a part of the ugly truth.

Ever since Gracie first began speaking up and trying to get help, Aaron’s champions have replied that concerned citizens like myself simply don't know the REAL truth.

I can bring up Pastor Steve Berger's “Brett Kavanaugh” sermon and how mere weeks after Gracie said she was raped, her own church pastor taught their congregation that her story couldn't meet the biblical criteria for valid accusations because there weren't two to three witnesses to the rape.

For those insisting the pastor was “only” speaking about the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, consider this frightening portion of Berger's sermon, spoken so soon after Gracie's own allegations against Aaron:

A precious mother said, “My 8-year-old daughter was abused by a family member. Steve, there were no witnesses. It was just my 8-year-old and this family member. What do we do? Do we just say we’re not going to listen to you? God forbid!”

I asked her, I said, “Well, what did you do about it?”

She said, “I went to the authorities.”

I go, “Great! That’s perfect! That’s what you need to do! That’s the right thing!” I said, “I hope justice worked out for you.”

And she said, “Well, not totally.”

I said, “I’m sorry.” That’s heartbreaking, isn’t it? It’s heartbreaking. It’s part of what happens in this broken world. But do you understand, beloved, that we [need] the required 2 or 3 witnesses to have some kind of civility or we have no need of witnesses and have injustice ready to happen every single time?

That has got to be among one of the ugliest ways a pastor could ever respond to a child's testimony of sexual abuse. His sermon told everyone in church that day that a man should not be charged with child sexual abuse unless he does it right in front of multiple witnesses.

Oh, but we don't know the REAL story.

The so-called real story that has been referred to repeatedly over the years by school administrators, church staff, police officers, Republican politicians, and now even a local investigative journalist. And which story is that?

People keep saying that we don't know the real story, but what they really mean is that Gracie Solomon lied. What they really mean is that she was a manipulative liar (or utterly manipulated) every time she panicked at the thought of being alone with Aaron.

That’s how they can nonchalantly watch Gracie's pain in that Publix parking lot as her father threatened to get the police involved—all because she begged to stay with her mom—and still protect Aaron over Gracie.

That's how ugly the truth is. That's how ugly people can be about child abuse, in general.

People don't want to admit that a former news anchor and radio personality could have raped his daughter and abusively controlled his son. They don't want to admit that so many people in various levels of local influence could support a predator year after year.

The truth is ugly.

It doesn't matter to Aaron’s Solomon's defenders that Gracie was (and is) petrified of her father because of everything he has already done to her and Grant. It doesn't matter that he already had his children picked up by the police and placed into his custody from the back of a squad car publicly, in front of their peers.

People who say we’ve got the story wrong do not give a damn about the frightening testimony of the children's court-appointed guardian ad litum, attorney Heather Webb. According to Webb, Aaron exerted far more coercive control over his children than in any other case she had witnessed. Webb testified that she believes Aaron Solomon “used wealth and personal connections to win favorable decisions to the detriment of Gracie, Grant, and Angie.”

It's ugly how little people cared about the evidence and witnesses to this abuse back in 2016 when Gracie first reported being raped (after years of other complaints about being abused), and it's ugly how little they care about the truth today.

While they might not come out and call Gracie a liar, they will certainly suggest it through their denials that Aaron Solomon did anything wrong, and they will also suggest that Angie, by even speaking up on her child's behalf, is crazy and not to be trusted.

We’re supposed to believe that Angie, a doctor of pharmacy who's been fighting for answers about her son's unusual death is crazy because… why, exactly?

Because she hasn't let it go that Gracie's father abused their children and kept then separated from her for years? Because she hasn't let it go that the same people who said we don't know the real story about the sexual abuse now say the exact same thing about Grant's death?

I don't actually believe that Angie is crazy. It helps that she underwent multiple psychological evaluations while Aaron Solomon endured… none. It helps that all of the mental health experts evaluating Angie supported her parental fitness but shared grave concerns over Aaron’s credibility, behavior, and abuse.

It helps that Angle’s actions have reflected a mother fighting to be heard and to allow her children to be heard, while Aaron’s actions have reflected a man who was only trying to control his family, and the public’s perception.

At the same time, I don't believe it even matters if Angie is “crazy.” If Angie was crazy, that still wouldn't make every complaint against Aaron any less concerning. It certainly wouldn't turn him into a dad of the year, either.

If anyone seems “crazy” in all of this, it's the father who stood at the top of a hill after saying his son had been dragged into a ditch, while never lifting a finger to comfort his dying son. It's the father who prevented his daughter from speaking to a therapist after she said he raped her. It's the father who never reacted with any bit of concern for the welfare of his kids, to the point of keeping little Gracie out of the hospital when she broke her back, and keeping a young Grant home for a year with no schooling.

If anyone else seems “crazy” to me, it's the seemingly endless amount of apologists for any person who's played even one terrible hand in Grant and Gracie's trauma.

Not to mention, in Angie's trauma, too.

We are, after all, talking about a woman who has had her name run through the mud for many years, from the moment her then-husband discovered she was working on a safe exit plan with Dr. Michael Reed, an expert who specialized in helping other battered women escape their abusive husbands.

We are talking about a woman who begged her community leaders for help but was repeatedly let down as they protected and enabled her and her children's abuser. Angie was accused of being an unfit mother. She was called a drug addict and said to be in rehab. Years of these false allegations against her were more than rumors or gossip. Those false allegations were actually heeded by corrupt judges and authorities who completely disregarded the facts and expert testimony to put Grant and Gracie back into the violent home of their father time and time again.

So, if anyone has earned the right to actually be crazy, it's the mother who lost her son and reputation just by fighting for her children's safety, freedom, and justice.

However, as I've said, Angie isn't crazy. Just because people are enamored by or blind to injustice, that doesn't mean she's out of her mind. Domestic abuse survivors are often called crazy. They are often mocked for making or simply for agreeing with shocking allegations about their abusers and their abusers’ enablers. It's a convenient way to brush away the ugly truths that so many people do not wish to hear.

It is all so ugly to see how many people are more than happy to make light of Gracie's abuse and Grant's cruel death, as long as they think it means they are protecting a few good men.

The truth here is very ugly because there have been so many glaring red flags about Aaron Solomon, yet so few adults with any authority have been willing to listen or take action.

It is ugly how so few newspeople near Nashville have taken Gracie seriously. It is ugly when respected journalists spout the same exact lines from a substantiated (but yet to be held accountable) sexual predator.

The truth is ugly because it is so inconvenient.

It's disappointing.

The truth is that even well-respected professionals break bread with known abusers. The truth is that many media professionals stick together and hide shocking secrets out of fear for rocking the boat or placing a target on their own backs. It is ugly that so many seemingly good people don't care.

It is ugly that many people will admit to the hypocrisy and corruption behind closed doors, but they are too cowardly to stand up publicly for Grant and Gracie with the full weight of what they know.

It is very ugly when the people we love (or those we have looked up to) do truly despicable things alongside all of the good things we've previously seen.

It is ugly to see how much a person can hide in the name of self-preservation.

The irony, of course, is that one day, the truth will come out and many people will finally quit debating the parts they once vehemently denied. The truth will come out and there will be justice for Grant and Gracie.

That's when a great crowd of abuse apologists will suddenly switch sides to make posts and comments about how they always knew there was something fishy about the parties involved in suppressing or minimizing the abuse.

Of course, they will thoughtfully minimize their own silence.

Despite all of the ugliness today, we will press on and look forward to the day when more people finally grasp how abusers thrive and hide in plain sight amongst those scrambling to hold them in the highest regard.