After a One Tree Hill writer came forward to accuse showrunner Mark Schwahn of sexual harassment, the series’ cast and crew have released statements as well.

Update 11/16/2017:

In response to these allegations, E! has suspended Schwahn from his position as showrunner of The Royals.

In a statement to Variety, E! says:

“E!, Universal Cable Productions and Lionsgate Television take sexual harassment allegations very seriously, investigate them thoroughly and independently, and take appropriate action. Lionsgate has suspended Mark Schwahn from ‘The Royals’ as we continue our investigation.”

The Royals star Alexandra Park has also released a statement in which she acknowledges that she too has been a victim of Schwahn’s “reprehensible behavior.”

Original story:

It is a powerful time in Hollywood right now, as more and more victims of sexual abuse or harassment have found the strength to speak up against their abusers.

Related: Warner Bros. suspends Arrowverse producer Andrew Kreisberg after sexual harassment allegations

The pattern so far has been men in positions of power, taking advantage of their employees or similarly vulnerable individuals.

Such appears to have been the case in the writers’ room of the long-running popular teen drama One Tree Hill (2003-2012), where showrunner Mark Schwahn allegedly harassed female writers as well as subjecting female cast and crew of to psychological and emotional manipulation.

The first to come forward was writer Audrey Wauchope, who implicated the showrunner in a Twitter thread:

In the full thread, Wauchope explained that female writers were hired because of their looks; she detailed Schwahn’s methods of sexual harassment and horrific treatment of women.

Following Audrey Wauchope’s original statement, several other One Tree Hill writers, both male and female (including Renee Intlekofer, Adele Lim and Karen Gist), have corroborated her report.

One writer, David Handelman, wrote a lengthy blog post in which he detailed the writers’ room environment, which was “horrible for women, but created a bad work environment for everyone.”

Since the original tweets were published, the actresses of One Tree Hill — including Sophia Bush, Hilarie Burton and Bethany Joy Lenz — have released individual statements offering their support of Wauchope, detailing ways in which they themselves have been harrassed, and condemning Schwahn’s behavior.

And on Monday, they released a joint letter detailing the “systemic reality of sexual harassment” in this industry which has kept women quiet for so long, signed by 12 female cast members in total. You can read it in full below:

To Whom It May Concern,

All of the female cast members of One Tree Hill have chosen this forum to stand together in support of Audrey Wauchope and one another. To use terminology that has become familiar as the systemic reality of sexual harassment and assault has come more and more to light, Mark Schwahn’s behavior over the duration of the filming of One Tree Hill was something of an “open secret.” Many of us were, to varying degrees, manipulated psychologically and emotionally. More than one of us is still in treatment for post-traumatic stress. Many of us were put in uncomfortable positions and had to swiftly learn to fight back, sometimes physically, because it was made clear to us that the supervisors in the room were not the protectors they were supposed to be. Many of us were spoken to in ways that ran the spectrum from deeply upsetting, to traumatizing, to downright illegal. And a few of us were put in positions where we felt physically unsafe. More than one woman on our show had her career trajectory threatened.

The through line in all of this was, and still is, our unwavering support of and faith in one another. We confided in each other. We set up safe spaces to talk about his behavior and how to handle it. To warn new women who joined our ranks. We understood that a lot of it was orchestrated in ways that kept it out of sight for the studio back home. We also understood that no one was fully unaware. The lack of action that has been routine, the turning of the other cheek, is intolerable. We collectively want to echo the calls of women everywhere that vehemently demand change, in all industries.

Many of us were told, during filming, that coming forward to talk about this culture would result in our show being canceled and hundreds of lovely, qualified, hard-working, and talented people losing their jobs. This is not an appropriate amount of pressure to put on young girls. Many of us since have stayed silent publicly but had very open channels of communication in our friend group and in our industry, because we want Tree Hill to remain the place “where everything’s better and everything’s safe” for our fans; some of whom have said that the show quite literally saved their lives. But the reality is, no space is safe when it has an underlying and infectious cancer. We have worked at taking our power back, making the conventions our own, and relishing in the good memories. But there is more work to be done.

We are all deeply grateful for Audrey’s courage. For one another. And for every male cast mate and crew member who has reached out to our group of women to offer their support these last few days. They echo the greater rallying cry that must lead us to change: Believe Women. We are all in this together.

With Love and Courage,

The Cast,
Sophia Bush, Hilarie Burton, Bethany Joy Lenz, Danneel Harris, Michaela McManus, Kate Voegele, Daphne Zuniga, India DeBeaufort, Bevin Prince, Jana Kramer, Shantel Van Santen, and Allison Munn.”

(More actresses from the show have since requested their names be added to the list, including Torrey DeVitto.)

Some of the male actors including James Lafferty, Lee Morris, Stephen Colletti, Austin Nichols and Robert Buckley have similarly offered their support of their female colleagues in individual statements.

This is a fantastic combined effort, and a strong statement against the toxic environment perpetuated by so many men in power in Hollywood. One Tree Hill may have been long off the air, but the family forged behind the scenes clearly remains as strong as ever, and these women continue to inspire us every day.

The hashtag coined by these brave women, #BurnItDownSis, really says it all.