{"id":119198,"date":"2023-06-05T21:02:20","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T01:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=119198"},"modified":"2023-06-05T21:02:20","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T01:02:20","slug":"rozzi-joined-by-childhood-sexual-abuse-victims-advocates-fellow-lawmakers-urge-senate-to-vote-on-statute-of-limitation-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=119198","title":{"rendered":"Rozzi joined by childhood sexual abuse victims, advocates, fellow lawmakers Urge Senate to vote on statute of limitation reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

HARRISBURG, June 5 \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0State Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, stood on Harrisburg\u2019s Capitol steps today alongside Caleb Kauffman, Lancaster County victim and advocate; Chairwoman Rep. Maureen Madden, D-Monroe; Rep. La\u2019Tasha D. Mayes, D-Allegheny; cast members of Peacock\u2019s \u201cSins of the Amish;\u201d and several other victims and advocates who together called for justice for childhood sexual abuse survivors.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s rally focused particularly on secular communities, like the Amish, where the prominent role of religious rules, societal shunning and limited access to technology discourage victims from coming forward.<\/p>\n

Speakers and rally-goers urged the state Senate to bring Rozzi\u2019s House Bills 1 and 2 up for a vote. Both pieces of legislation would open a retroactive two-year window during which victims could file civil lawsuits against their abusers, regardless of when the abuse occurred. These bills passed the House earlier this session with bipartisan support.<\/p>\n

\u201cStatute of limitations bills, specifically on childhood sexual abuse, have been introduced in the state legislature for almost 19 years. Justice delayed is justice denied,\u201d Rozzi said. \u201cHouse Bill 1 and House Bill 2 have the power to spare future children from going through what I endured.\u00a0If the Senate won\u2019t vote on these bills, they run the risk of repeating history by further denying victims a chance to seek the justice they need and deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kauffman represents the fifth wave of victims who have come to the state Capitol in hopes of changing state law to protect future generations of children. Kauffman said he was abused by family members who created and led an independent church within the community of plain faith he grew up in. He spearheaded today\u2019s events alongside Rozzi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have memories of being sexually abused by five different males,\u201d Kauffman said. \u201cHow do we find healing from here? From here, we need to confront another hard truth, we have to acknowledge that as a society, we have failed to protect our children from sexual abuse. Our local, church and state leaders are either sexually abusing children or they are supporting a system that allows sexual perpetrators to live in peace and without consequence. As a society, we need to change our laws in order to create a space for healing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Madden, chairwoman of the House Democrats\u2019 Northeast Delegation, spoke publicly about abuse she endured as a five-year-old for the first time.<\/p>\n

“Healing cannot begin without justice,” Madden said. “Two decades of fighting for justice for survivors of childhood sexual abuse is far too long. That is why we stood today with one collective voice to call on our colleagues in the Senate to pass the statute of limitations legislation and open a window of justice for victims and survivors.”<\/p>\n

Mayes is another fellow survivor in the legislature and spoke at today\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you Rep. Rozzi for all that you have done for us to meet the moment of bringing justice to survivors and victims of childhood sexual abuse,\u201d Mayes said. \u201cNo matter what religion we are or what faith community we belong to, we must root out childhood sexual abuse. We need that window for justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s event was sponsored by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and CHILD USA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the survivors coming out of the isolated, religious communities,\u201d Marci Hamilton, president and CEO of CHILD USA, said. \u201cThey fight not only to be able to come forward when they\u2019re ready, remember age 50 or 52 is the average age to come forward, but they are in systems that do not permit them to go to the authorities and do not permit them to blame others in the organization publicly. That is a hurdle that is extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIncest, rape, sexual assault as a child or teenager is a taboo word in American culture and communities since the very beginning,\u201d Michael McDonnell, communications manager for SNAP, said. \u201cThe awareness about these horrors has to change. We stand in solidarity today for the victims who are being created today, and sadly, that is a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSexual abuse is a topic that can bring out many feelings and emotions,\u201d Joyce Lukima, chief operating officer of PCAR, said. \u201cWhether we have been directly impacted by sexual abuse or know and love someone who has been affected, this is a crime that affects all of us and a public health problem that we can all work to prevent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike so many other plain communities, the Amish community I lived in had rampant child sexual abuse. The only punishment a pedophile received was six weeks of shunning. Such a punishment will never deter a pedophile. Forgiveness is too often more important than getting children away from danger and keeping other kids from becoming victimized,\u201d Misty Griffin said. Griffin authored the book \u201cTears of the Silenced\u201d which Peacock then developed into \u201cSins of the Amish.\u201d Griffin served as a consulting producer for the film.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nAmanda Mehall
\nHouse Democratic Communications Office<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HARRISBURG, June 5 \u2013\u00a0State Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, stood on Harrisburg\u2019s Capitol steps today alongside Caleb Kauffman, Lancaster County victim and advocate; Chairwoman Rep. Maureen Madden, D-Monroe; Rep. La\u2019Tasha D. … Continue reading Rozzi joined by childhood sexual abuse victims, advocates, fellow lawmakers Urge Senate to vote on statute of limitation reform<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Mark-Rozzi.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/119199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}