A Review of ‘Keep This Between Us’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the documentary series ‘Keep This Between Us’. It also features discussions of grooming and sexual abuse. Which may be triggering to some individuals.
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It is definitely safe to say that the first twenty-two years of the twenty-first century have been both stunning and eye opening. Because our nation and our world have transformed before our eyes and with that transformation has come… some genuinely unsettling truths. For now, we know that old haunts are alive and well in America and that for a supremely long time, ugly things have been happening behind the scenes. The kind that impacts people in awful ways. For instance, the Boston Globe revealed early on at the start of the century that the Catholic Church covered up decades of horrible actions by priests. The kind that involved sexual abuse and it wasn’t long before that kind of exposure was extended to a powerful industry.
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Since the #MeToo Movement exposed the toxic behaviors of men in Hollywood, and how they would use their position of power to abuse women that were hoping for their shot to be on the silver or small screen, or they abused established stars as well. Which are both massive surprises that led to some incredible reckonings for certain and what’s unsettling, is that the world isn’t done exposing the dark acts that men in positions of power continue to commit. For over the course of the past last two nights, Freeform was host to a powerful documentary on how teachers cross the line and abuse their students and that makes Keep This Between Us an important and poignant documentary. 

One that introduces us to Cheryl Nichols, who after spending years in an abusive and controlling relationship with a former teacher, decided to regain agency in her life by telling her story and confronting her abuser though this documentary and well… Cheryl wastes little time in this series, outlining exactly how her abuser groomed her into the perfect girlfriend. For he used her youth and need to be recognized at a young age… as his way into her life. Wherein he could be close to her and slowly control her and of course… Cheryl was fine with this at the time, since she was unaware that someone in a position of power was manipulating her in this manner and well… taking the time to explore exactly how this works, was both horrifying and important.

Because this is something that few of us know is an actual problem in this world, but this exposed those kinds of behaviors in a frank manner and set the stage for the horrifying truth that these behaviors happen often. Since we also met Haven in this documentary, who also found herself manipulated by a teacher through false positivity designed to create admiration. Not to mention, Cheryl also received countless messages from others while preparing to assemble this show, who informed her they experienced something similar in their school or knew of someone that experienced it and well… those revelations were quite sobering in nature and of course, beg the question… how on earth is this happening so regularly?

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A question that the show was quick to answer as well, and the answer wasn’t comforting in the slightest. For we came to learn that no one holds these men accountable in the slightest. They simply float from school to school when they’re caught and eagerly indulge in their toxic behaviors once again because of that lack of accountability, and the system would rather keep that going than directly confront the fact that there is a serious and systemic problem with abusers in education. In fact, school districts are so blasé on the matter, that poor Haven had to sue her district to get any action and she is still waiting for her abuser to face his day in court. Something that has now been pushed around for six years.
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But while all of those elements properly expose the horror that hides behind the façade of sanctity in schools, and truly teaches us how the process works and how these abusers gain the upper hand, the outrage one feels from watching this begs another important question. Specifically, what can we do to put an end to this? Well first, we can have these uncomfortable conversations with others, so it becomes a topic that is discussed far and wide. Because that’s the kind of stuff that makes those kinds of men uncomfortable and we can of course, ask better of our school districts and demand clear cut policies and penalties that handle this kind of problem.

But above all else, we need to listen, and we need to be proactive. For if someone is saying this is happening to them, they need to be trusted and believed and supported and if we have concerns about strange interactions between a student and their teacher, we need to get after those concerns hard. So that these men feel fear over being exposed because that kind of fear will make them hesitant to continue their disgusting acts. But while those are long term goals, in the meantime, we can spread the word about this series, one that is honest and visceral and powerful and important. Since it starts a critical conversation about a serious problem in our modern world that needs to be addressed as soon as absolutely possible.

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