Published March 14, 2012
Link
Written with Kalea Hall
Cheers and applause filled the heated meeting room of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center as one 17-year-old girl called Gov. Tom Corbett a coward for not attending the Port Authority Public Forum.
Hundreds of other Port Authority riders faced with the possibility of losing their jobs, not being able to make appointments or to live a life of independence shared their stories with a panel of Port Authority Board members at the public forum held on Wednesday, Feb. 29, where over 350 speakers were scheduled to present their testimonies.
“It just doesn’t make any sense. There isn’t a designated funding stream for public transit,” said Anne Nalepa, Access rider from Shaler Township, at Wednesday’s forum.
The Port Authority of Allegheny County scheduled a period of public comment from Feb. 5 through March 9 following the proposal they made to eliminate nearly 50 routes, reduce others and increase fares due to its $64 million deficit. During the past month, Port Authority received over 2,300 online comments, 300 letters from postal mail and eight petitions with nearly 890 signatures.
The Port Authority Board of Directors will be voting on Friday, April 27 on whether the service reductions, cuts and fare increases will be implemented this summer. Another board meeting is schedule for June, when it will reevaluate the operating budget. However, Heather Pharo, communications contact for the Pittsburgh Port Authority, said funding could come at the last minute and change these plans.
“If something were to happen between now and April 27 that would enable us to avoid these cuts, then certainly the plans would change accordingly,” Pharo said in a phone conversation Monday afternoon. “But as it is right now, we are proceeding with the worst-case scenario.”
In February, Corbett failed to address the hardships facing Pennsylvania Public Transit. At this point, Port Authority officials claim the only way they will be able to compensate for their deficit and prevent the cuts is if they receive state funding, which has yet to be granted by the governor.
Many Pittsburgh residents who spoke at the public forum were not happy with Corbett, who was not present to hear their stories.
Nalepa was brought up to the podium with yells of thanks and praise. Nalepa, who uses Access paratransit, a public transportation system for the disabled, to get to work and back, spoke out for those disabled and in need of the transit system that provides a life of independence.
“For me as a single mom, [service elimination] means is I would lose my job and I wouldn’t be able to provide for my kids so that they can finish their education,” Nalepa said outside of the meeting room.
Nalepa works as a peer counselor for Three Rivers Center for Independent Living. There, she teaches and trains the disabled how to live independently. Unfortunately, if the bus cuts go through, she will not only lose her job, but also the majority of her clients she teaches.
“If the proposed service cuts take effect, then every consumer that has a disability who has to rely on Access Paratransit if there is no bus stop within three-fourths of a mile from their house, then legally Access is not required to provide service,” Nalepa explained.
Mother and daughter Anita and Ashely Brown were both at the forum to voice their opinion about the bus cuts.
Ashley uses the 61A and other routes to make it to her job in the Waterfront from her home in Wikinsburg.
"Since the cuts, I’ve had to give up hours. If you cut more bus services, I might as well give up my job up. Jobs are hard enough to find as it is, I want to keep mine,” Ashley Brown said when addressing the board.
Although her mother, Anita Brown, will not be forced to quit since she drives to and from her job, she still went to the forum to speak up for those she passes every day waiting patiently for their bus.
“I’ve seen people so grateful to catch a bus close to them, which is actually two or three miles away. They’ll get off that bus and walk the rest of the way. I just have to pick them up as I see them walking,” Anita said outside of the meeting room on Wednesday, Feb. 29. “They’re sad, cold and have a long walk. With these cuts, that’s only going to get worse.”
Nalepa sees the same fate for not only Access users, but all public transit users in the Pittsburgh area.
“For people who can’t drive, for whatever reason ... there’s no other option. So, you are stuck in the house, then how do you pay your bills? How do you have a house?” Nalepa said. “There is no other system to fall back on, and Access goes to the minimum service, then people just can’t get out and can’t do anything at all.”
Monday, February 27, 2012
The Globe: Port Authority opens public comment, lobbies for state funding
Published Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012
Link
Written with Kalea Hall
As a result of recently proposed service cuts and reductions, the Port Authority is urging residents of Pittsburgh to voice their opinion on its website and to join them in its efforts to seek state funding at a public comment hearing on Feb. 29.
The public comment period, which is required by state law when public transportation services are proposing any level of service reductions, will continue until March 9.
"The Feb. 29 hearing is for us to hear people's comments and their feedback and their stories," Heather Pharo, communications contact for the Port Authority, said Thursday afternoon. "The hearing is a good chance for our funders to hear what people have to say."
In order to legally balance its operating budget, which funds day-to-day expenses such as employee wages, cost of fuel, revenue for advertising and more, Port Authority proposed reducing services by 35 percent, including an elimination of 47 of the current 102 routes and reduced hours of operation for all remaining services. Additionally, fare rates in Zone 1 will be increased by 25 cents and Zone 2 will increase by 50 cents, effective July 1. Service reductions are scheduled to begin Sept. 2.
Pittsburgh Port Authority is currently facing a $64 million budget deficit for the 2012 fiscal year.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett did not include state funding of transportation services in the 2012-2013 Pennsylvania state budget, presented on Feb. 7, despite urgings from the transportation funding advisory commission (TFAC). Therefore, Port Authority is left with no other option to relieve the $64 million budget deficit it is currently facing. The commission, which was formed last spring by the governor, is comprised of "experts of transportation finance and local government" according to the committee's final report in August 2011.
The committee's final report focused on funding of the transportation system, including roads, bridges, public transit, aviation, rails and ports. According to this final report, the cities found "new sources of transportation funding" and emphasized the need for "efficiency and moderation."
"We the public have been waiting for the governor to make a public statement about what funding solutions he supports, and that has not happened, and that didn't happen in his annual budget address either," Lucinda Beattie, vice president of transportation for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, said Monday afternoon. "So we are encouraging people to contact the governor to lobby support for the commission's recommendation."
State Representatives Daniel Frankel and Mike Hanna have introduced a bill in Harrisburg to generate funding for state mass transit. Frankel is supporting a proposal that would provide money from the Pennsylvania turnpike tolls to fund mass transit statewide. According to Pharo, bills like these would help alleviate Port Authority's deficit.
"We obviously would like to prevent [the cuts] from happening, be able to scale them back," Pharo said. "But I know that certainly there are a lot of people out there that want something to happen. We have seen in the state legislature the introduction of bills with measures to fund transportation. So it's our hope that one of those bills could become law."
If there is no action at the state level providing the Port Authority with funding, the effects of cut and eliminated transit routes will be felt throughout the Downtown area, where roughly 70,000 people use public transportation to make it to work each day, according to Beattie.
Sarah George, director of commuter affairs for Point Park University, is in agreement with Beattie and Pharo that action needs to take place at the state level.
"They're facing this cut because they're not getting the funding from the state and they don't have the funding on their own essentially to support their cost of business," George said.
Members of the transit user community can leave public comments on the Port Authority's website under the Company Info and Projects tab and the Budget and Finances link. The public hearing, hosted by the Port Authority board of directors, will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 29 from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
"That's a good way for the people who want us to see who it would affect … in their own words, in their own voices, telling their own stories about how they rely on transit to get to work, or to get to the doctor's office, or to do anything," Pharo said. "And basically that's a really good opportunity to come out and add their voice to speak up for transit."
Link
Written with Kalea Hall
As a result of recently proposed service cuts and reductions, the Port Authority is urging residents of Pittsburgh to voice their opinion on its website and to join them in its efforts to seek state funding at a public comment hearing on Feb. 29.
The public comment period, which is required by state law when public transportation services are proposing any level of service reductions, will continue until March 9.
"The Feb. 29 hearing is for us to hear people's comments and their feedback and their stories," Heather Pharo, communications contact for the Port Authority, said Thursday afternoon. "The hearing is a good chance for our funders to hear what people have to say."
In order to legally balance its operating budget, which funds day-to-day expenses such as employee wages, cost of fuel, revenue for advertising and more, Port Authority proposed reducing services by 35 percent, including an elimination of 47 of the current 102 routes and reduced hours of operation for all remaining services. Additionally, fare rates in Zone 1 will be increased by 25 cents and Zone 2 will increase by 50 cents, effective July 1. Service reductions are scheduled to begin Sept. 2.
Pittsburgh Port Authority is currently facing a $64 million budget deficit for the 2012 fiscal year.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett did not include state funding of transportation services in the 2012-2013 Pennsylvania state budget, presented on Feb. 7, despite urgings from the transportation funding advisory commission (TFAC). Therefore, Port Authority is left with no other option to relieve the $64 million budget deficit it is currently facing. The commission, which was formed last spring by the governor, is comprised of "experts of transportation finance and local government" according to the committee's final report in August 2011.
The committee's final report focused on funding of the transportation system, including roads, bridges, public transit, aviation, rails and ports. According to this final report, the cities found "new sources of transportation funding" and emphasized the need for "efficiency and moderation."
"We the public have been waiting for the governor to make a public statement about what funding solutions he supports, and that has not happened, and that didn't happen in his annual budget address either," Lucinda Beattie, vice president of transportation for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, said Monday afternoon. "So we are encouraging people to contact the governor to lobby support for the commission's recommendation."
State Representatives Daniel Frankel and Mike Hanna have introduced a bill in Harrisburg to generate funding for state mass transit. Frankel is supporting a proposal that would provide money from the Pennsylvania turnpike tolls to fund mass transit statewide. According to Pharo, bills like these would help alleviate Port Authority's deficit.
"We obviously would like to prevent [the cuts] from happening, be able to scale them back," Pharo said. "But I know that certainly there are a lot of people out there that want something to happen. We have seen in the state legislature the introduction of bills with measures to fund transportation. So it's our hope that one of those bills could become law."
If there is no action at the state level providing the Port Authority with funding, the effects of cut and eliminated transit routes will be felt throughout the Downtown area, where roughly 70,000 people use public transportation to make it to work each day, according to Beattie.
Sarah George, director of commuter affairs for Point Park University, is in agreement with Beattie and Pharo that action needs to take place at the state level.
"They're facing this cut because they're not getting the funding from the state and they don't have the funding on their own essentially to support their cost of business," George said.
Members of the transit user community can leave public comments on the Port Authority's website under the Company Info and Projects tab and the Budget and Finances link. The public hearing, hosted by the Port Authority board of directors, will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 29 from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
"That's a good way for the people who want us to see who it would affect … in their own words, in their own voices, telling their own stories about how they rely on transit to get to work, or to get to the doctor's office, or to do anything," Pharo said. "And basically that's a really good opportunity to come out and add their voice to speak up for transit."
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
The Globe: Port Authority proposes fare increase, 35 percent service reduction
Published Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012
Link
The Port Authority of Pittsburgh is currently proposing a 35 percent service reduction, effective in September, should it not receive adequate state funding to support the cost of continued service. Other service changes would include a fare raise in July and reduced service for all remaining bus and light-rail routes.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett presented the state budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year yesterday. Details of this and how it will affect these proposed Port Authority service cuts will be featured in next week's issue of The Globe.
Situated in the hub of Downtown's transportation routes, Point Park University will not directly feel the effects of these changes, but students and faculty traveling from nearby neighborhoods to the university will inevitably be forced to adjust their routine commute should the changes and cuts occur.
Additionally, resident students who frequently use Port Authority transit to part-time jobs or other activities in surrounding neighborhoods will be equally impacted, said Sarah George, director of commuter of affairs at Point Park. She believed the hardest adjustment will be for students who work on the weekend or live out of town.
"It would be really annoying," Meghan Higgins, a senior psychology major and resident at Point Park, said Monday night in the Point Cafe. "I work in Oakland, and I'm pressed for time as it is."
One such proposed cut is the elimination of service on Saturdays and Sundays for buses traveling to Ross Park Mall, as well as a reduction of service on the 28X Airport Flyer.
"They are looking at service reductions and potential elimination [of 28X] beyond Robinson Towne Center for weekday, Saturday and Sunday," George said in her office last Thursday. "We have many students who are not from here, who go to the airport, whether it's for spring break or another weekend away, and they would certainly have to look into other sources of transportation."
Additionally, George is concerned for the parking problem to increase in Pittsburgh should these routes be reduced.
"An example that I heard, if you look at a bus, say there are 40 people on the bus. Imagine that all 40 people are capable of driving and have a car – that's 40 more cars for that one bus that's trying to get Downtown, so traffic is going to be worse, rush hour is going to be worse, parking is going to be worse," George said. "It is larger than just who rides the bus. This bus on the Boulevard is usually full by 7:30; that's going to be full much earlier. … It's definitely going to impact our students, but we're not the only ones affected. How many other major businesses are in Downtown – PNC, BNY Mellon – all have people from the suburbs coming into the core. They need to get here; they need somewhere to park."
Gabriella Corcos, a freshman dance major who has had her route reduced in the past, had to adjust to a slower schedule of only two buses an hour at her stop.
"It's really upsetting that they're always looking to cut routes first," she said Monday in the Lawrence Hall lobby. "It's especially upsetting because our Port Authority isn't the greatest to begin with."
George said the only way for the situation to be resolved is for students and Pittsburgh transit users to tell Corbett of their concerns for the city's transportation should funding not be provided for the Port Authority. George encouraged all members of the Point Park community to send a message to Corbett via www.keeppghmoving.com, saying how these service cuts would affect them.
"It's letting Harrisburg know that we need this, something needs to be done, it's important to us," George said. "It's not a commuter problem, it's not a resident problem, it's a much larger issue that Point Park needs to be aware of. Ultimately, it's going to affect Pittsburgh in the future, if it happens and these routes are cut and parking becomes a problem, businesses may leave Downtown. It's a chain reaction."
Link
The Port Authority of Pittsburgh is currently proposing a 35 percent service reduction, effective in September, should it not receive adequate state funding to support the cost of continued service. Other service changes would include a fare raise in July and reduced service for all remaining bus and light-rail routes.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett presented the state budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year yesterday. Details of this and how it will affect these proposed Port Authority service cuts will be featured in next week's issue of The Globe.
Situated in the hub of Downtown's transportation routes, Point Park University will not directly feel the effects of these changes, but students and faculty traveling from nearby neighborhoods to the university will inevitably be forced to adjust their routine commute should the changes and cuts occur.
Additionally, resident students who frequently use Port Authority transit to part-time jobs or other activities in surrounding neighborhoods will be equally impacted, said Sarah George, director of commuter of affairs at Point Park. She believed the hardest adjustment will be for students who work on the weekend or live out of town.
"It would be really annoying," Meghan Higgins, a senior psychology major and resident at Point Park, said Monday night in the Point Cafe. "I work in Oakland, and I'm pressed for time as it is."
One such proposed cut is the elimination of service on Saturdays and Sundays for buses traveling to Ross Park Mall, as well as a reduction of service on the 28X Airport Flyer.
"They are looking at service reductions and potential elimination [of 28X] beyond Robinson Towne Center for weekday, Saturday and Sunday," George said in her office last Thursday. "We have many students who are not from here, who go to the airport, whether it's for spring break or another weekend away, and they would certainly have to look into other sources of transportation."
Additionally, George is concerned for the parking problem to increase in Pittsburgh should these routes be reduced.
"An example that I heard, if you look at a bus, say there are 40 people on the bus. Imagine that all 40 people are capable of driving and have a car – that's 40 more cars for that one bus that's trying to get Downtown, so traffic is going to be worse, rush hour is going to be worse, parking is going to be worse," George said. "It is larger than just who rides the bus. This bus on the Boulevard is usually full by 7:30; that's going to be full much earlier. … It's definitely going to impact our students, but we're not the only ones affected. How many other major businesses are in Downtown – PNC, BNY Mellon – all have people from the suburbs coming into the core. They need to get here; they need somewhere to park."
Gabriella Corcos, a freshman dance major who has had her route reduced in the past, had to adjust to a slower schedule of only two buses an hour at her stop.
"It's really upsetting that they're always looking to cut routes first," she said Monday in the Lawrence Hall lobby. "It's especially upsetting because our Port Authority isn't the greatest to begin with."
George said the only way for the situation to be resolved is for students and Pittsburgh transit users to tell Corbett of their concerns for the city's transportation should funding not be provided for the Port Authority. George encouraged all members of the Point Park community to send a message to Corbett via www.keeppghmoving.com, saying how these service cuts would affect them.
"It's letting Harrisburg know that we need this, something needs to be done, it's important to us," George said. "It's not a commuter problem, it's not a resident problem, it's a much larger issue that Point Park needs to be aware of. Ultimately, it's going to affect Pittsburgh in the future, if it happens and these routes are cut and parking becomes a problem, businesses may leave Downtown. It's a chain reaction."
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
The Globe: Local victim-turned-advocate fights for funding of federal task forces
Published Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012
Link
As Alicia Kozakiewicz stood behind a podium in December, addressing a small crowd of reporters with cameras and notebooks, the courtyard of the Downtown Allegheny County Courthouse echoed with emptiness. While Kozakiewicz delivered a message intended for state lawmakers on the need for funding for police task forces to arrest child sex predators in Pennsylvania, the crowd appeared too small for such a large issue. But for Kozakiewicz, it is overflowing.
"In my speeches, I always say,‘I don't stand here alone, that beside me are millions of children whose voices have been silenced,'" said Kozakiewicz, a survivor of Internet luring and abduction. "It's true. I feel like they are next to me, holding my hand. I can feel them, I really can. They're there. They give me the strength to move forward."
In the years since her rescue, the 10th anniversary of which was this past Jan. 4, Kozakiewicz, 23, has undergone the emotional journey of not just transitioning back into her daily life in Crafton Heights, but also transforming into an advocate for Internet safety and legislative state and federal funding of police task forces cracking down on Internet predators.
"It was a miracle that I was rescued, and today it would be a miracle that my case was ever even investigated," said Kozakiewicz, a 2010 Point Park University graduate . "When this happened to me, the funding was there because this wasn't as prolific. But now, because there's so many cases and so many predators, and the Internet has grown into some uncontrollable beast, they're not able to contain it and they're drowning."
A bill proposed to General Assembly in Harrisburg on Dec. 5 by state Rep. Daniel Deasy, D-Westwood, who was at the press conference, focuses on instances of failure to report, such as those regarding 20,000 known child sex offenders in Pennsylvania and the recent Pennsylvania State University scandal. The bill makes reporting child sex abuse mandatory.
Camille Cooper, the legislative director for PROTECT, which has teamed up with Kozakiewicz to fight for funding, said formal discussions are currently underway in Harrisburg regarding the bill, and a briefing regarding action should be scheduled soon.
Kozakiewicz's abduction was one of the first investigated cases of Internet luring in America. Over the course of several months, then 13-year-old Kozakiewicz developed an online relationship with a man from Virginia in an Internet chatroom. The man arrived at her home on Jan. 1, 2001, abducting Kozakiewicz across state lines to his home in Virginia and holding her captive in his basement dungeon where he raped, beat and tortured her over the next four days.
Kozakiewicz continually describes her rescue as a "miracle, because it took another monster coming forward to basically tell on him, to snitch." Her abductor shared video and photos of Kozakiewicz's torture and violation with a friend via file sharing sites. After the friend realized the FBI was searching for Kozakiewicz and her abductor, in addition to the fact that the shared files could incriminate him as well, he alerted officials. Special FBI task forces were able to track the originating IP address of the files to the abductor's home within 12 hours of the tip, and Kozakiewicz was rescued on what she believes was the day she would have been killed.
"It never crossed my mind that rescue would actually happen," she said. "I had gotten to the point where I was so scared that I was hiding under the bed from what would be my rescuers … I just thought the people that were in the house were searching for me to hurt me more."
Since her rescue, Kozakiewicz created the Alicia Project, through which she speaks to school assemblies about the importance of Internet safety. The Project has teamed up with PROTECT and the National Organization to Protect Children to fight for the passing of Alicia's Law, a mandate of funding to police task forces responsible for arresting child sex predators – like the one responsible for Kozakiewicz's rescue 10 years ago – in all 50 states. Versions of the law already exist in Virginia and Texas, and she has turned her focus on her home state of Pennsylvania.
Kozakiewicz used her advocacy as a means of recuperation from her traumatic experience, but she feels the trauma will remain with her for the rest of her life.
"I feel like I was rescued, but I've never really recovered," she said. "You don't just snap back from something so traumatizing. That man killed that little girl, that little girl was murdered in that basement. And I feel that there are pieces of me that will forever be trapped there."
Kozakiewicz suffered from amnesia following her experience, and aspects of her capture are still a mystery to her. Turning advocate and speaking out for her cause seemed like a natural step in her journey to recovery, she said.
"It started getting a bit easier because I started remembering my story," she said. "As I was telling it, there would be new pieces coming together, and I would be like ‘oh my God,' and I'd start crying in front of these people because I didn't even know that part of this. I was able to piece together what happened to me through talking to these kids. I think if I hadn't started speaking out, I wouldn't be strong. I think I would have let other people put me down … Instead of standing up and finding my voice, I think I would have been swallowed up by their thoughts."
Kozakiewicz's resiliency is somewhat of a phenomenon for the psychologically traumatized, said John Carosso, a child clinical psychologist from Community Psychiatric Centers in Greensburg. While he does not suggest Kozakiewicz's public recovery, he believes speaking out about a situation can lead to a level of empowerment few in similar situations can reach, although it is on the rise.
"For a case with amnesia, it can be very dangerous," Carosso said. "It can wreak havoc on a person when it resurfaces, so we want it to resurface in a controlled way. For the resilient, for the people that speak out, it's how they take the trauma. What do they do with it? They channel the energy and master it in a controlled way."
According to Carosso, mastery of a situation for someone who has experienced trauma takes practice. Flashbacks can easily be triggered by simple objects or feelings in the person's everyday life, and recognizing those objects and controlling those feelings is what leads to recovery.
"You never fully recover," he said."There are still residual feelings of the trauma. It's about adjusting to your still fragile life, that those feelings will be with you until you die. You have to be well on the road of recovery to master those feelings [and begin speaking publically]. And that can be truly empowering."
Cooper believes it takes a certain type of personality to conquer and overcome situations like these.
"There's something special about Alicia," she said."She has a certain kind of chutzbah. She's had a lot of press; it's a lot of work. It must be nerve-wracking, but she does great."
Kozakiewicz's recent motivation comes from the knowledge that the same technology responsible for her rescue has been used to track roughly 20,000 known instances of images of child pornography across the state of Pennsylvania, according to a 2008 Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) law enforcement database. Kozakiewicz and Cooper describe the images as crime scenes and say that all 20,000 are cause for arrest.
"Only 2 percent are being investigated [through the ICAC task force]," Kozakiewicz said. "Imagine if just 4 percent were being investigated, or just one more child came home. It's about the one child."
"Not one more child" has become the war slogan for Kozakiewicz's campaign, which has since spawned similar branches of initiatives, like the Not One More Child Coalition. Her current efforts are focused on passing a report mandate for the state of Pennsylvania regarding child sex abuse cases.
Kozakiewicz and Cooper claimed those 20,000 offenders have knowingly been overlooked by Pennsylvania Attorney General
Linda Kelly and other state officials because of lack of funding for resources to make arrests.
Additionally, statistics suggest one of every three homes sharing child pornography is also a site for child sex abuse, according to Cooper. Kozakiewicz and Cooper hope to have a state of emergency declared in Pennsylvania to accomplish these arrests.
"A state of emergency would open up the resources and would be able to focus them on rescuing these children," Kozakiewicz said. "And they could cut through the red tape and all the funding issues and call in all the first responders, and they would have available boots on the ground to go rescue these children."
As the Christmas decorations and holiday reminders are removed from homes, Kozakiewicz finds this time of the year to be especially trying. The holiday season in particular triggers crippling flashbacks for the survivor, and yet she would not trade in her experiences for a different outcome knowing the progress and impact her story has made.
"There's a lot of people that say, ‘Why did this happen, why me?'" Kozakiewicz said. "And at some point, I realized maybe I was the one that could survive through it, who would get the chance to speak out and really help people. I hate to say it, but maybe this is all part of some sort of plan."
Link
As Alicia Kozakiewicz stood behind a podium in December, addressing a small crowd of reporters with cameras and notebooks, the courtyard of the Downtown Allegheny County Courthouse echoed with emptiness. While Kozakiewicz delivered a message intended for state lawmakers on the need for funding for police task forces to arrest child sex predators in Pennsylvania, the crowd appeared too small for such a large issue. But for Kozakiewicz, it is overflowing.
"In my speeches, I always say,‘I don't stand here alone, that beside me are millions of children whose voices have been silenced,'" said Kozakiewicz, a survivor of Internet luring and abduction. "It's true. I feel like they are next to me, holding my hand. I can feel them, I really can. They're there. They give me the strength to move forward."
In the years since her rescue, the 10th anniversary of which was this past Jan. 4, Kozakiewicz, 23, has undergone the emotional journey of not just transitioning back into her daily life in Crafton Heights, but also transforming into an advocate for Internet safety and legislative state and federal funding of police task forces cracking down on Internet predators.
"It was a miracle that I was rescued, and today it would be a miracle that my case was ever even investigated," said Kozakiewicz, a 2010 Point Park University graduate . "When this happened to me, the funding was there because this wasn't as prolific. But now, because there's so many cases and so many predators, and the Internet has grown into some uncontrollable beast, they're not able to contain it and they're drowning."
A bill proposed to General Assembly in Harrisburg on Dec. 5 by state Rep. Daniel Deasy, D-Westwood, who was at the press conference, focuses on instances of failure to report, such as those regarding 20,000 known child sex offenders in Pennsylvania and the recent Pennsylvania State University scandal. The bill makes reporting child sex abuse mandatory.
Camille Cooper, the legislative director for PROTECT, which has teamed up with Kozakiewicz to fight for funding, said formal discussions are currently underway in Harrisburg regarding the bill, and a briefing regarding action should be scheduled soon.
Kozakiewicz's abduction was one of the first investigated cases of Internet luring in America. Over the course of several months, then 13-year-old Kozakiewicz developed an online relationship with a man from Virginia in an Internet chatroom. The man arrived at her home on Jan. 1, 2001, abducting Kozakiewicz across state lines to his home in Virginia and holding her captive in his basement dungeon where he raped, beat and tortured her over the next four days.
Kozakiewicz continually describes her rescue as a "miracle, because it took another monster coming forward to basically tell on him, to snitch." Her abductor shared video and photos of Kozakiewicz's torture and violation with a friend via file sharing sites. After the friend realized the FBI was searching for Kozakiewicz and her abductor, in addition to the fact that the shared files could incriminate him as well, he alerted officials. Special FBI task forces were able to track the originating IP address of the files to the abductor's home within 12 hours of the tip, and Kozakiewicz was rescued on what she believes was the day she would have been killed.
"It never crossed my mind that rescue would actually happen," she said. "I had gotten to the point where I was so scared that I was hiding under the bed from what would be my rescuers … I just thought the people that were in the house were searching for me to hurt me more."
Since her rescue, Kozakiewicz created the Alicia Project, through which she speaks to school assemblies about the importance of Internet safety. The Project has teamed up with PROTECT and the National Organization to Protect Children to fight for the passing of Alicia's Law, a mandate of funding to police task forces responsible for arresting child sex predators – like the one responsible for Kozakiewicz's rescue 10 years ago – in all 50 states. Versions of the law already exist in Virginia and Texas, and she has turned her focus on her home state of Pennsylvania.
Kozakiewicz used her advocacy as a means of recuperation from her traumatic experience, but she feels the trauma will remain with her for the rest of her life.
"I feel like I was rescued, but I've never really recovered," she said. "You don't just snap back from something so traumatizing. That man killed that little girl, that little girl was murdered in that basement. And I feel that there are pieces of me that will forever be trapped there."
Kozakiewicz suffered from amnesia following her experience, and aspects of her capture are still a mystery to her. Turning advocate and speaking out for her cause seemed like a natural step in her journey to recovery, she said.
"It started getting a bit easier because I started remembering my story," she said. "As I was telling it, there would be new pieces coming together, and I would be like ‘oh my God,' and I'd start crying in front of these people because I didn't even know that part of this. I was able to piece together what happened to me through talking to these kids. I think if I hadn't started speaking out, I wouldn't be strong. I think I would have let other people put me down … Instead of standing up and finding my voice, I think I would have been swallowed up by their thoughts."
Kozakiewicz's resiliency is somewhat of a phenomenon for the psychologically traumatized, said John Carosso, a child clinical psychologist from Community Psychiatric Centers in Greensburg. While he does not suggest Kozakiewicz's public recovery, he believes speaking out about a situation can lead to a level of empowerment few in similar situations can reach, although it is on the rise.
"For a case with amnesia, it can be very dangerous," Carosso said. "It can wreak havoc on a person when it resurfaces, so we want it to resurface in a controlled way. For the resilient, for the people that speak out, it's how they take the trauma. What do they do with it? They channel the energy and master it in a controlled way."
According to Carosso, mastery of a situation for someone who has experienced trauma takes practice. Flashbacks can easily be triggered by simple objects or feelings in the person's everyday life, and recognizing those objects and controlling those feelings is what leads to recovery.
"You never fully recover," he said."There are still residual feelings of the trauma. It's about adjusting to your still fragile life, that those feelings will be with you until you die. You have to be well on the road of recovery to master those feelings [and begin speaking publically]. And that can be truly empowering."
Cooper believes it takes a certain type of personality to conquer and overcome situations like these.
"There's something special about Alicia," she said."She has a certain kind of chutzbah. She's had a lot of press; it's a lot of work. It must be nerve-wracking, but she does great."
Kozakiewicz's recent motivation comes from the knowledge that the same technology responsible for her rescue has been used to track roughly 20,000 known instances of images of child pornography across the state of Pennsylvania, according to a 2008 Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) law enforcement database. Kozakiewicz and Cooper describe the images as crime scenes and say that all 20,000 are cause for arrest.
"Only 2 percent are being investigated [through the ICAC task force]," Kozakiewicz said. "Imagine if just 4 percent were being investigated, or just one more child came home. It's about the one child."
"Not one more child" has become the war slogan for Kozakiewicz's campaign, which has since spawned similar branches of initiatives, like the Not One More Child Coalition. Her current efforts are focused on passing a report mandate for the state of Pennsylvania regarding child sex abuse cases.
Kozakiewicz and Cooper claimed those 20,000 offenders have knowingly been overlooked by Pennsylvania Attorney General
Linda Kelly and other state officials because of lack of funding for resources to make arrests.
Additionally, statistics suggest one of every three homes sharing child pornography is also a site for child sex abuse, according to Cooper. Kozakiewicz and Cooper hope to have a state of emergency declared in Pennsylvania to accomplish these arrests.
"A state of emergency would open up the resources and would be able to focus them on rescuing these children," Kozakiewicz said. "And they could cut through the red tape and all the funding issues and call in all the first responders, and they would have available boots on the ground to go rescue these children."
As the Christmas decorations and holiday reminders are removed from homes, Kozakiewicz finds this time of the year to be especially trying. The holiday season in particular triggers crippling flashbacks for the survivor, and yet she would not trade in her experiences for a different outcome knowing the progress and impact her story has made.
"There's a lot of people that say, ‘Why did this happen, why me?'" Kozakiewicz said. "And at some point, I realized maybe I was the one that could survive through it, who would get the chance to speak out and really help people. I hate to say it, but maybe this is all part of some sort of plan."
Sunday, January 1, 2012
WHIRL Magazine: Go Glam
Published January 2012
Link
Wear the Rainbow
With a Galatea DavinChi Cut Collection gemstone, now available at Turner Jewelers, the rainbow is within reach. Designed by an optical engineer, these special gemstones feature a faceted-cut crown that allows light to reflect from the gem in every surrounding color. Every time your earrings dangle and twinkle, a new color is revealed, including emerald and ruby, which are contained in the setting and reflected in the gem. The collection includes pendants, rings, and earrings featuring cut amethyst, blue or white topaz, citrine, or diamonds set in 14K white or yellow gold. Turner Jewelers, 724.443.4990. turnerjewelers.com.
Link
Wear the Rainbow
With a Galatea DavinChi Cut Collection gemstone, now available at Turner Jewelers, the rainbow is within reach. Designed by an optical engineer, these special gemstones feature a faceted-cut crown that allows light to reflect from the gem in every surrounding color. Every time your earrings dangle and twinkle, a new color is revealed, including emerald and ruby, which are contained in the setting and reflected in the gem. The collection includes pendants, rings, and earrings featuring cut amethyst, blue or white topaz, citrine, or diamonds set in 14K white or yellow gold. Turner Jewelers, 724.443.4990. turnerjewelers.com.
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