I Wanted Them To Have Justice, To Be Heard And Healed
Shannon O’Conner, 2021 Inductee to Class Action Hall of Fame
Prior to litigation, my life was going just as I had planned it. I spent 20 years working as a tv producer, had won an Emmy and had the family I always dreamed of. In 2018 I was happily living as a stay at home mom, raising my daughter and son. Then one day, just browsing through Facebook, something happened I had not planned. A secret I had been keeping for 25 years, a secret I had never spoken aloud to anyone, was staring me in the face. It was a news story about Dr. Tyndall being fired from USC for sexually assaulting female students. My secret was the day in 1993 when I, as a USC student visiting the health clinic, was held down on an exam table and sexually assaulted by Dr. Tyndall. Seeing his face again brought it all back and physically made me sick. I thought I was the only one he had ever done it to.
I thought no one would believe me if I told anyone what happened that day. He was a doctor, I was a 22-year-old student. My real horror that day was guilt. After he assaulted me, over the next 25 years, he assaulted thousands of other women. What if I had not been so scared to tell anyone? Could I have prevented those women from being assaulted. The memory of that day had been shut away in my mind, I could not let myself think about it, but now it was consuming me. I thought about my own daughter. If I could prevent something like this from happening to her, if I could show her the courage now that I didn’t have 25 years ago, maybe that would show her that when someone sexually violates you, you don’t stay silent, you speak up and you speak up loudly so everyone has to hear you. When I read the way USC, the school I loved so much, had actively and knowingly protected and enabled Dr. Tyndall to assault their students, I knew that I had to speak up, it was time to for me to bring my secret out of the dark where it had been poisoning me for years and expose it to the light.
A younger, more naive Shannon was one of thousands taken advantage of by Tyndall
I decided that what I needed to do was find a lawyer and file a lawsuit on behalf of myself and the thousands of other victims of Dr. Tyndall. I don't even remember how or where I found the number for Girard Sharp. I didn’t know who to speak to or what they would say but it was one of the most important phone calls I would ever make. The very first time I ever spoke out loud and told another person what had happened to me that day was when I spoke to Daniel Girard for the first time. He listened patiently and spoke about his own daughters and how he felt an obligation as a father to protect them as well from this kind of sexual violence. His words gave me great comfort and more importantly, courage to file the lawsuit, not as a Jane Doe as law allowed me to do, but under my real name to show my daughter that I was no longer afraid of Dr. Tyndall or USC.
Shannon O’Conner talks about her experience
In addition to working with Daniel, I worked with Elizabeth Kramer who was my greatest strength during litigation. Her compassion, her patience and her dedication got me through the darkest days of this lawsuit. She was with me every step of the way until the lawsuit was finally settled. The day the suit was settled I was flooded with emotion. My greatest worry during the entire process was for the other women in the lawsuit. I wanted them to have the justice they needed and I wanted them to be heard and healed. I still think of them and their stories and I expect I will for the rest of my life.
It was never about the money for me. I know people won’t believe that, but it is true. It was always about justice for all of my fellow students, for my fellow women and justice for them. I wanted them to feel believed and understood. I so badly want them to find the peace with what happened to them, a peace I'm still searching for myself but I'm confident I will find it one day.
Shannon was inducted into the Impact Fund Class Action Hall of Fame on February 25th, 2021 in recognition of her courage, sacrifice, commitment, and determination that led to a significant advance in social justice.
