Lindsey Ramsey became an aide in an infant room at a child care facility as a 19-year-old single mom looking for work so she could afford diapers for her daughter. Never having thought about entering the sector, she learned how to care for children from a group of passionate caregivers.

“I had no idea what I was doing,” said Ramsey, 34, now the executive director of Shady Lane School in Point Breeze North. “But we had a wonderful group of educators who helped uplift new people entering the field … and they taught me how to change diapers and be a mom … I started to fall in love with early childhood education.”

The pandemic, though, exacerbated a multitude of underlying problems that had long haunted the care industry, such as high costs for parents and low wages for employees, according to child care advocates and providers. Now some child care practitioners are anticipating crisis.

While Congress injected $39 billion into child care through the American Rescue Plan Act [ARPA], it didn’t address underlying problems in child care infrastructure. 

More than half of that funding ended in September, igniting fears over a mass closure of child care facilities dubbed the “child care cliff.”

While the end of federal funds will not lead to wholesale closures, Cara Ciminillo, executive director of Trying Together, an Allegheny County-based child care advocacy group, said the decline of providers will continue if long term funding is not brought in.

Despite the mounting challenges, Ramsey said caring for the community and her love of childhood education keep her working in the field.

“I’m driven by equity, because it is so important that we are elevating those who don’t have the resources, who don’t have enough to be able to succeed and thrive in life,” Ramsey said. “Having access to early childhood [care] early on, is one of the leading contributing parts to human development. So I consider it to be a key component to equity, and that’s why I am rooted and stuck here.”

Ramsey is one of many child care providers in Allegheny County who shared concerns with the Pittsburgh Media Partnership. They fear that affordable and accessible child care could take major hits without new funding and government resources. 

Pennsylvania shuttered 2,189 child care programs from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to June 2023, Emily Neff, Trying Together’s public policy director, said in an email. And even with new facilities opening, the net loss was 597.

Neff said 181 child care programs permanently closed in Allegheny County from 2019 through November of this year for a net loss of 18 in the county.

Diane Barber, executive director of the Pennsylvania Child Care Association, partly blames the closures on high operational costs of facilities and rapid staff turnover that occurred throughout the pandemic.

Barber said utility bills rose over the pandemic, compounding bills for child care providers and families. 

As the pandemic dragged on, employees at child care facilities across the state left for better-paying — and often easier — positions in public schools or even at retail locations, Barber said. And when the pandemic wound down, they didn’t return.

“I’ve heard this not once, I’ve heard this multiple times, that [a new child care staff worker] will show up and they’re gone by lunch because this is just not the job that they thought it was going to be,” Barber said. “They thought they were gonna play with kids and that’s not what it’s all about.”

Ramsey, who worked at Shady Lane as an educator before the arrival of COVID-19, returned as an administrator in the midst of the pandemic, while a budget deficit and record low enrollment prompted talk of closure.

Ramsey said Shady Lane received more than $200,000 in federal funds through the county to expand its programming for young children to accommodate eight new infants and 10 new toddlers. The grants sat on top of additional federal funds it used to subsidize employee wages.

“And that’s what really saved us,” Ramsey said of the Allegheny County grant. “We had a long infant-toddler waitlist. That gave us the ability to open more classrooms.”

How one of the county’s youngest departments distributed ARPA funds 

Allegheny County allocated $20 million of its $380 million ARPA allotment to organizations providing or advocating for child care under the designation “Healthy Childhood Environments,” according to the county ARPA spending dashboard. 

The county established the Department of Children Initiatives and assigned it to administer ARPA funds in December of 2021 following the recommendations in a report from the Allegheny County Children Fund’s working group.

So far, the department has disbursed a little over $6.1 million across 25 child care providers, advocacy groups and a consultancy firm, according to Mathew Singer, the chief of staff at the Allegheny County Controller’s office.

Rebecca Mercatoris, the department’s executive director since its inception in 2021, said the first goal when allocating the money was to build the capacity of existing part-time and full-time child care providers. 

Federal spending deadlines stipulate the county needs to allocate the remaining $13.9 million to organizations during 2024 and distribute it within two years.

Mercatoris said since the department’s establishment, it’s focused on mapping out the problems impacting child care in Allegheny County. Now, it’s trying to solve them. 

Minimal funds and shrinking staff make a ‘bad combination’

Mercatoris said one of the biggest problems facing child care — one described by many providers and advocates — relates to its business model. Parents across demographics need affordable child care to get back to work, while private child care providers need to turn a profit to retain staff and keep slots for children open. 

“I think one of our largest challenges is around family access and affordability and being able to support families in meeting their child care needs while also ensuring providers have the funds they need to be able to hire great staff and be able to keep them with them,” Mercatoris said.

Despite a constant demand for child care, there’s not enough people staying or going into the workforce due to low wages. This, coupled with a lack of financial support on the county, state and federal level, makes for what Ramsey describes as a “bad combination” that providers can’t keep up with. 

“[Providers] don’t want to price gouge families because they know families can’t afford it,” Ramsey said. “So in turn, they are taking the loss and this loss has impacted the sector to the point where we’re at the brink of collapse.”

According to Ramsey, even after the mandatory shutdowns ended, many facilities couldn’t open because all of their staff either had left for higher paying jobs or their older staff couldn’t come back to work due to risk of exposure to COVID. 

“People started to realize that they had to increase their wages to get people to come back to work there,” Ramsey said. “So those mom and pop centers and nonprofits struggled financially because they were having to raise wages with money that they didn’t have.” 

The Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh [BCAP] provides free after-school programs to families and students in the Brentwood area, but had to close down a program it started in 2019 at Concord Elementary School.

Khara Timsina, BCAP’s executive director, said BCAP will need more funding to continue to operate its after-school and summer programs into next year.

Deborah Gallagher, the director of the Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center Early Head Start program, said it’s become increasingly hard to find people who are both interested and qualified to continue working in early child care facilities.

Gallagher oversees both COTRAIC’s Early Head Start program in Hazelwood and the partnerships the program has with several other day care centers.

According to Gallagher, Head Start and Early Head Start received ARPA funding in 2021 and 2022, some of which covered quarterly bonuses for staff. But when the bonuses stopped, Gallagher lost staff. Now she is paying “hefty substitute fees” for subs from a staffing company called Childcare Careers.  

“Parents can’t find care because we can’t find people,” said Gallagher, noting that if facilities had the funds to find and train people the industry would pick up. 

‘I’m just trying to get good care for my kid’

Parents said issues of affordability and long wait lists existed long before pandemic-era staffing shortages added to their woes..

For Shawna Ramsey, 28, of Baldwin Borough, the high cost of child care pushed her out of her career. 

A mother of three, Ramsey – who is not related to Lindsey Ramsey – said she had her first child while in college. In nursing school, she said she couldn’t find a child care facility with an open spot, let alone a facility that matched her budget stretched thin by student loan payments. 

She became a nurse, had another child and then a third — but her nursing salary remained the same. She carried a surrogate child to pay for her student loans, and ultimately decided to leave the nursing field to focus on motherhood.

“I think it’s really interesting that [child care] costs so much when workers get paid so little,” Ramsey said. “Private owners seem to be profiting off of people in need.”

The Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank, estimates that it costs the average family in Pennsylvania $987 monthly to keep one infant in child care. A median child care worker in Pennsylvania would have to spend more than half of their earnings to put their own child in infant care.

After serving in the Navy, Liz Sterrett, was wrapping up her degree and looking for a child care spot for her 3-year-old daughter. She found a facility that would let her do janitorial work in exchange for a spot, but after college she had to start paying $600 a month — a cost she can’t wrap her head around six years later.

“I’ve had to shape my life and career around the fact that I cannot afford child care by myself,” said Sterrett, 37, of Bellevue. “No matter how much I scream and shout and cry, it doesn’t become affordable.”

Sterrett’s current employer lets her work from home several days a week, saving her hundreds a month in child care. She said it’s not ideal, and her now 9-year-old daughter has “several meltdowns because I can’t give her my full attention,” but child care is still a luxury she can’t afford. 

“Access to child care is absolutely abhorrent,” Sterrett said. “There is no reason why I should be struggling … I am not living some fancy metropolitan lifestyle. I’m just trying to get good care for my kid.”

‘Band-Aid on a historical problem’

While funding initiatives like ARPA sought to help facilities that took a hit during the pandemic build back their staff and resources, providers point to broader inequities that contribute to the issues they are facing.

“[ARPA] was not enough, because it was a Band-Aid on a historical problem,” Lindsey Ramsey said. “The historical problem is that the field was never invested in enough because the work isn’t valued and that has further snowballed into an issue of staffing … of the field not looking attractive enough to join, of programs not being able to truly reflect the true costs of the work that they’re doing.” 

According to Ciminillo, the average hourly wage for a Pennsylvania child care employee is $12.43 — not enough, but hard to raise because doing so would increase the cost of tuition for parents.

“We’re competing for folks and we’re not being successful because we can’t get the wages up and it’s because we don’t have a larger government investment in the system,” Ciminillo said.

Ciminillo described the child care system as already “very fragile” prior to the pandemic given that providers were not compensated, valued, appreciated or invested in enough. 

Lindsey Ramsey added that historically women, especially women of color, are the ones who provide child care, which she said is likely the reason why there seems to be less focus on funding the field. 

Maria Manautou, a former worker at a child care center in Pittsburgh, said better pay would be the fast route to alleviating staffing issues.

“If you have two jobs, and the one offers you … $15 and you’re not having that kind of stress and then the one offers you $12 and you’re stressed all day, then you can see how people end up picking something different,” Manautou said.

Ciminillo said the federal government and local communities began to realize how much they needed child care once – after the initial weeks of shutdown in 2020 – essential workers needed to get back to work but couldn’t do so without care. 

 To build a sustainable future child care sector, Ramsey is calling for  a “change and shift in the narrative of how we are looking at the early childhood field.” 

“At a federal level, there needs to be policy put in place for true equitable wages that reflect the level and importance of the work that’s being done,” Ramsey said. 

Calling on Congress: Providers say short term funding is not enough

Barber said short-term funding initiatives like ARPA only address problems in the child care sector as they arise, failing to address the underlying problems.

She compares the influx of short-term funding to building with Jenga blocks that keep moving around.

“Then we know how that game ends, right?” Barber asked. “Everything falls apart.”

Ciminillo said Allegheny County needs to establish a recurring revenue stream to support early learning and out-of-school programming. And for that to happen, she said local officials must hear their constituents’ demands.

“Each of us, no matter our position, no matter our age, no matter whether we have children or not, play a role in affecting young children, their families, and their caregiver’s lives,” Ciminillo said. “So it’s just so important that everybody show up and use their sphere of influence in support of that.”

Democrats in Congress introduced legislation in September to supplement child care funding by distributing $80 billion over five years when ARPA expires.

According to a press release announcing the legislation, this funding request would support more than 220,000 child care providers nationally that serve a total of more than 10 million children. It has not yet received a vote.

U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, and U.S. House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, a Democrat from Massachusetts, toured La Petite Academy, a new child care facility at Pittsburgh International Airport, earlier this month and spoke about the issues plaguing child care and what they deemed as largely partisan opposition to potential solutions.

Clark said that without Republican support, she’s “not very optimistic” Congress will be able to get the $16 billion in supplemental funding passed.

Deluzio, a father of three and member of the Congressional Dads Caucus, described the “death spiral” child care providers enter when they’re forced to increase rates to retain staff but, in turn, price out families, which lowers their revenues. It’s a problem, he said, that can only be resolved through federal support of the child care industry.

“This is about lowering costs. This is about giving folks the ability to work and earn and be part of society,” Deluzio said in regards to the $16 billion funding request, “The federal government’s got to be there to help strengthen [the child care sector], invest and ultimately bring down costs for people.”

Still, several child care advocates say even ambitious fixed-term funding initiatives won’t solve the structural problems plaguing the sector.

“This can’t be a one-time funding,” Lindsey Ramsey said. “This has to be funding that is ongoing [and] sustainable, that’s built into government policy.”

Correction: Shady Lane School is in Point Breeze North. An earlier version of this story included an incorrect neighborhood.

Betul Tuncer and James Paul are students at the University of Pittsburgh. They completed fall internships with the Pittsburgh Media Partnership. Tanya Babbar, a student at the University of Pittsburgh, and Erin Yudt, a student at Point Park University, completed fall internships with PublicSource. Juliet Martinez is managing editor of The Homepage, a community newspaper serving Greater Hazelwood and surrounding neighborhoods.

The post ‘Band-Aid on a historical problem’: Child care providers expect slow collapse of sector without long-term aid appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Editor’s note: This story contains references to sexual abuse, domestic violence and murders of children.

Update (12/14/23): The Pennsylvania Senate passed the bill dubbed Kayden’s Law by a vote of 50-0 on Dec. 13. The bill now moves to the state House for consideration.

Reported 12/7/23:

Claim abuse, lose custody: A bill aims to curb a trend born of the theory of ‘parental alienation’

When a child development professional first told Inaya that they would be filing a Childline report on behalf of her toddler, she felt both relieved and terrified. 

The Pittsburgh mother of one was fearful her then-husband would hurt her child once she disclosed the abuse, but her worry poured out to the child development professional. “One weekend I broke down before her because of what had been happening, and she then told me that, ‘You and your daughter are no longer safe here,’” said Inaya, whose real name is being withheld out of concern that publicity might result in negative consequences.

Inaya had been enduring what she described as increasingly threatening tirades and promises of violence: throwing items, breaking down doors and descriptions of physical harm that would come to her and her child if they did not comply. Once the Childline report was filed, Inaya knew the risk had surged, and she had to leave. 

“That’s when I called up the women’s shelter, and she said, ‘Just pack two sets of clothes for yourself and your daughter and come right here.’ OK, and so that’s what I did.” 

She believed that would be the start of a new — and safer — life for her and her toddler. 

Instead, five years later, Inaya’s ex-husband has primary custody and she is only permitted to see her child for two overnight visits per week, which she says amounts to about 13 to 15 waking hours. The case has included testimony brought by an expert witness called by her ex-husband who said that physical and sexual abuse might be less harmful to a child than “parental alienation.”

The decades-old theory of parental alienation, which holds that one parent may deliberately turn a child against the other, has polarized family courts across the country. Court decisions to disregard abuse allegations, driven in part by the theory, have been linked to child deaths.

Since the death of a Philadelphia-area child in 2018, advocates and lawmakers have pushed for more protections for the children of parents fleeing abusive situations. But while measures inspired by that death have made their way into law in some states and can even unlock federal funding, they haven’t yet made it through Pennsylvania’s General Assembly.

Parental alienation: Worse than a punch?

Psychiatrist Richard Gardner coined the phrase “parental alienation syndrome” in 1985, characterizing it as a disorder in which children, programmed by the allegedly “loved” parent, grow resentful of the allegedly “hated” parent, and often of that parent’s extended family. 

In 2013, the American Psychological Association [APA] listed parental alienation as a specific form of child abuse. Parental alienation syndrome is not listed as a medical term in either the International Classification of Diseases or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Nonetheless, it turns up in custody cases, including Inaya’s in a 2021 custody trial.

Her lawyer sought to exclude the testimony of Robert Evans, a psychologist and co-author of the book “The Essentials of Parent Alienation Syndrome,” but a county Court of Common Pleas judge denied that motion. According to the trial transcript, Inaya’s lawyer then cross-examined Evans, presenting hypothetical scenarios of abuse.

“Can a parent inflict more damage by parental alienation than the parent could inflict by, say, breaking the child’s bones?” the lawyer asked.

“Conceivably, yes,” Evans answered.

“… How about, you have a 4-year-old child, and the parent punches the child in the face and leaves two black eyes,” the lawyer continued. “Could in your opinion parental alienation be worse for the child than that?”

“Potentially, yes,” said Evans.

“OK, how about if you have a 4-year-old, and the father forces the child to perform fellatio on him. Could that be less harmful to the child than parental alienation?”

“Potentially, yes,” Evans answered.

“How about the father actually fully penetrates his four year old daughter’s vagina with his penis. Could that be less harmful to the child than parental alienation?” the lawyer asked.

Said Evans: “Potentially.”

Evans did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

In late 2021 the judge gave Inaya’s former husband custody of the child, with periods of supervised custody for the mother.

A theory that usually works against moms

“Historically we have seen fathers get custody of their children during custody cases because women and children were seen as their property,” said Danielle Pollack, policy manager for the National Family Violence Law Center at George Washington University Law School. Over the last several decades, Pollack said, “we have seen more of a 50/50 standard.”

Parental alienation claims, though, have pushed the pendulum back, according to research conducted by the center.

“Parental alienation is an effective legal strategy even though there is no evidence to support it,” said Joan Meier, a professor of Clinical Law and Director of the center. “It fits the court’s mind that no abuse could ever happen and both parents should just get along.”

Meier’s 2019 study found that in cases in which mothers claim abuse by a father, and the father then claims alienation, courts are more than twice as likely to disbelieve the mother’s claim. When a mother claims child abuse, and the father claims alienation, courts are almost four times more likely to dismiss the claim than if the father did not claim alienation. 

“Women’s voices are taken as less credible and children even less credible,” Pollack said. “So when you have to talk about the abuse, the courts have the human response to deny it. We all don’t want it to be true that these things have happened, especially child sexual abuse. Your brain just turns off.”

Meier also found that when fathers claim alienation, the rate at which mothers lose custody shoots up from 26% to 50% for any abuse allegation. Even when courts believe a father has abused a mother, if they also believe the mother is alienating, some mothers still lose custody to the abusive fathers. 

Across all cases in which alienation was claimed — regardless of whether abuse was claimed — when a father alleged a mother was alienating the man took full custody from her 44% of the time. When the genders were reversed, mothers took custody from fathers only 29% of the time. 

“It’s a mix of ignorance, stereotypes, denial of abuse and misogyny,” Meier said. “There has not been any useful training [in courts] on the use of parental alienation and its gendered outcomes.”

Judges “see an abuser come into court calm, cool, collected, a pillar of the community,” said Kathleen Russell, executive director of California-based Center for Judicial Excellence. 

The mother, by contrast may appear stressed and could be suffering from PTSD, impacting their courtroom delivery, Russell added. As a result, judges “don’t believe the women because they don’t present well, and they believe the abusers because they are poised and don’t act abusive.” 

When parental alienation is alleged, she said, efforts to disprove it can instead appear to support the underlying claim, in a system where judges tend to reward the friendliest parent.

“If your kid is being raped on the weekend and you are trying to restrict custody or go for sole custody because your child is having medical issues or is hysterical upon pickup, you are not going to look friendly to the court.”

Incautious calls by courts can bring tragedy.

The Center for Judicial Excellence’s dashboard logs nearly 1,000 children’s deaths nationwide, since 2008, in cases in which custody was contested over allegations of abuse. The issue, said Russell, is that the family court system was not designed and has not been trained to handle cases like these. 

“The majority of cases that come in are not domestic violence or child abuse cases,” said Russell. “Those all settle amicably; the parents are able to put the child’s best interests forward.” But when the case gets complicated, she said, untrained family courts too often fail to protect children. 

Kayden’s story — and the bill named after her 

On Aug. 6, 2018, 7-year-old Kayden Mancuso, from Bucks County, was murdered by her father Jeffrey Mancuso during court-ordered unsupervised custody time, which had been granted despite the mother raising safety concerns during custody litigation. Kayden’s mother, Kathy Sherlock, had submitted evidence to the court of the father’s abusive, violent history including criminal records and filed for a restraining order.

In 2019, a bill named after Kayden, and aimed at averting future tragedies, was introduced in Pennsylvania. Almost five years later, the latest version passed the Senate Judiciary Committee with a unanimous vote in October, but has not yet passed either full chamber of the General Assembly. 

The bill would:

• Make clear that the most important issue in custody cases is protection of the child
• Establish a hearing to review evidence after claims of abuse
• Require that a court-determined abusive party would be limited to supervised custody until that party could prove they do not pose a risk to the child’s health and safety
• Mandate ongoing, evidence-based training programs within courts regarding child abuse, domestic violence and the impact of child abuse and domestic violence on children.

State Sen. Steven Santarsiero, D-Bucks County, the prime sponsor of Kayden’s Law, said he is “cautiously optimistic” that the bill will pass soon.  

“Every stakeholder has been very supportive,” he said. “It was just fine tuning.” 

State Rep. Emily Kinkead, D-Brighton Heights, said she expects the bill to pass.

Kinkead, an attorney who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, said she had concerns that provisions in prior versions, which would have required professionals to supervise visits when there was an allegation of abuse, would be very difficult to execute given the lack of trained court supervisors. “If the courts are telling you that they can’t make it work, that’s something you should listen to,” said Kinkead. The updated bill suggests looking closely at each case to determine whether it requires a professional visitation supervisor. 

Last year President Joe Biden reauthorized the Violence Against Women’s Act, enacted in 1994, increasing services and support for survivors from underserved and marginalized communities including for LGBTQIA+ survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. The act endorses provisions echoing Kayden’s Law’s planks, pledging federal funds to states that require courts to carefully consider abuse allegations, ensure that the right of a child to be with a protective parent is not secondary to the desire to improve the child’s relationship with the other parent and require training for judges. However, states are not required to take these measures. 

“Kayden’s Law is such low-hanging fruit,” Meier said. “Requiring that experts are truly experts in what they are testifying for, requiring training for judges and not ordering the [child’s] reunification with an alleged abuser seems so clear and necessary.”

While Kayden’s tragedy occurred in Pennsylvania, Colorado became the first state to officially pass Kayden’s Law in May. New York, Maryland, Montana and Illinois have also introduced similar legislation. California passed similar legislation in mid-October. 

An Allegheny County court spokesperson declined to respond to questions, saying the court can’t comment on anything related to pending legislation.

‘We just can’t side with abuse’

Kendra, a mom in Allegheny County whose real name is being withheld, said she endured almost six years of being “emotionally, mentally, spiritually” abused. Kendra was granted a PFA, but once it expired, she said, her husband would break into her house, vandalize her property and verbally abuse her in front of their two children.

“When I would call the police, they said they couldn’t do anything because his name was still on the deed of the house because we weren’t officially divorced yet,” Kendra said. 

Kendra said these events were very traumatizing for her and her children. Her son, then three years old, would lock the doors anywhere they went because he “wanted to keep the bad guys out.” 

Kendra has primary custody of her children, with her ex-husband having five hours per week plus every other weekend and some holidays. She notes that she found a way to finance the continued cost of a lawyer.

“What is happening to these women and children that don’t have the money? There were times I would get [lawyer bills] up to $2,000 to $4,000 every two weeks,” Kendra said. “The system is so perverted and twisted, it doesn’t protect women; men use kids as pawns and there’s no accountability unless women are in the financial position to keep going to court for as long as it takes.”  

“It still comes down to who has the most money for a better lawyer,” said Pollack, of the National Family Violence Law Center.

Neighborhood Legal Services, a federally funded program to provide legal aid, can help eligible households to navigate family courts. 

Meier said that abuse continues through generations in part because it is not acknowledged. 

“We just can’t side with abuse any longer,” Meier said. “So many kids are being intentionally harmed and traumatized, and it’s so frustrating that courts deny abuse all the time and still hold onto old fashioned and inaccurate standards. … We need to just keep calling it out or it will keep happening.”

The City of Pittsburgh officially declared November as Family Court Awareness month. Pollack led a press conference conducted by Mayor Ed Gainey’s office, which included statements from child survivors of abuse.

“As a survivor, you are told to tell the truth and you would be okay, but after hours of questioning and telling the truth, we were completely ignored,” said a child referred to as Nova, whose real name was withheld. “Everyone overlooked what we had to say, and it affected us greatly. The trauma caused by family court is real.”

Inaya does not want to give up on getting custody of her child, but it’s exhausting and expensive. She’s also unsure if more hearings will even make a difference.

“I shared what my daughter had told me, ‘Papa does bad things to me.’ And another time, she had said that he doesn’t stop,” she said. “I shared this in the court.” 

Correction: Neighborhood Legal Services provides legal aid to victims of domestic violence, and to clients in custody cases related to Protection from Abuse cases if there is a high risk of lethality or other safety factor. Subject to available resources, NLS represents clients in some types of family court cases in which custody is contested. The agency also helps clients in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler and Lawrence counties to navigate family courts. An earlier version of this story mischaracterized NLS’ availability. To seek legal help, click here.

Meg St-Esprit is a freelance journalist based in Bellevue. She can be reached at megstesprit@gmail.com or on Instagram and Twitter.

Erin Yudt is an editorial intern at PublicSource and can be reached at erin@publicsource.org.

This story was fact-checked by Punya Bhasin.

The post Updated: Kayden’s Law passes Pa. Senate, would change family court handling of child abuse allegations appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

For many around the world the images and reports out of Israel and Gaza since October have brought anguish and devastation. 

“It’s traumatic for both sides — Israeli or Palestinian,” said Christine Mohamed, executive director of the Council for American-Islamic Relations Pittsburgh. “The images and the things that you’re hearing are just traumatizing for all of us. I don’t even have loved ones in that area, but it’s traumatizing for me with some of the images, so I can only imagine what those members of our community are feeling.”

The news has led to an increase in reports of discrimination and hate directed at Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities worldwide. In Pittsburgh, faith and cultural communities are navigating sensitive discussions while also combating discrimination to ensure public safety. 

Attacks by the militant group Hamas, from Gaza into Israel on Oct. 7, led to the deaths of 1,200 Israelis, with an estimated 200 taken hostage. Israel’s military response has brought estimated death tolls ranging from at least 11,000 to more than 14,000. Even as efforts to swap hostages and pause fighting continue, the enduring tension and violence in the area ripples outward.

“Just because the war isn’t directly happening here does not mean it does not have an impact here,” said Shawn Brokos, director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

Instances of Islamophobia, antisemitism surge

In 2021, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh logged 82 reports of antisemitic incidents and safety concerns. This year, the number has almost tripled to 237 by the end of October. 

“It’s very easy to say that there has been a dramatic increase in antisemitic attacks in Pittsburgh since [Oct. 7],” Brokos said.

A Pittsburgh police spokesperson did not provide data on an increase in hate incidents, but said the bureau is working closely with the FBI and faith communities in the city to continuously monitor any acts of violence and hate that may stem from escalations in Gaza and Israel. 

“For obvious reasons, there is heightened awareness and fear in the community, both locally and nationwide, and police encourage everyone to report all crimes or anything of concern,” the police spokesperson wrote in response to questions.

Mohamed said CAIR has seen an increase in Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiments across the country since the events of Oct. 7. Between this date and November 4, CAIR received 1,283 reports, a 216% increase since 2022. 

Mohamed said there has been a swell in verbal assaults and profanity directed at community members in public and at schools. She said while many area schools and universities have taken a neutral stance, some have only offered support for Israel, which has made Palestinian and Arab students feel disenfranchised. 

The majority of the recent safety concerns involving antisemitism have come from college campuses, according to Brokos, who oversees security for local Jewish organizations and places of worship. The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University have both seen on-campus activism in response to the war.

“I think there is a lot of misinformation and disinformation among college students, specifically more disinformation, which is intentionally inaccurate information to exploit something,” Brokos said. “But we work closely with Pitt and CMU student organizations and their police, and that has been really great.”

Brokos also said recent events can make it easy to pit groups against one another, but it is important to remember that we are all human.

It’s tempting to feel “that there should be one clear side to support when it is much more complex,” Brokos said. “We also need to all look out for one another, not just the Jewish community.”

The 10/27 Healing Partnership, an organization that provides support for individuals and their loved ones impacted by the October 2018 synagogue shooting and others who experience hate-induced trauma, has posted an anonymous survey inviting observations on respondents’ “internal questions and conflicts” and suggestions for what the organization can do to better support the community. 

“Some people may feel worried about antisemitism and personal safety, and yet try and dismiss it because it feels insubstantial compared to the worries of others,”  said Maggie Feinstein, executive director of the partnership, in a statement. “However, multiple truths can be true at the same time.”

Mohamed said CAIR has had an interfaith relationship with Pittsburgh’s Jewish community for many years and encourages people from all communities to check in on each other. She met with Rabbi Ron Symons from the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh and said their shared concern is “​​the security and safety within our own hometown.”

“Neither one of us wants to see violence, even if we have disagreements on how things should go on the geopolitical scale,” Mohamed said. 

Colleges implementing new reporting and resources

Pitt has noticed an uptick in reports regarding antisemitism and Islamophobia. In an email sent out to the Pitt community, Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Clyde Wilson Pickett noted this rise and encouraged community members to avoid letting “disagreements spill over into hateful rhetoric.”

According to Pitt spokesperson Jared Stonesifer, the university has received “approximately two dozen reports since October 7, many of which are still under investigation. Prior to October 7, we averaged one to three reports per month in 2023.”

Pickett said Pitt wants to emphasize a “proactive strategy and not be reactive,” noting that the majority of dialogue on campus has remained respectful to all communities.  

“We are not seeing an increase in ‘hate,’ but we are hearing elevated concern, and we are taking that seriously and being proactive,” Pickett said. Pitt offices, he said, are reaching out to faith communities and ethnic groups and listening to their concerns.

CMU Provost James Garrett Jr. and Vice President of Student Affairs Gina Casalegno released a statement to the campus community about art expression on the campus fence, which has stood as a self-regulating, student-governed space for open expression for over 100 years. Students have painted the fence with words in support of a free Palestine and against antisemitism.

“We acknowledge that, on issues that may divide us, the free expression of some may cause discomfort and concern for others,”  the statement read. “As an academic community committed to advancing our educational mission, we must grapple with these tensions.”

Some students say that they have faced discrimination and Islamophobic attacks at the fence and throughout campus. Several students were so concerned that they asked that their names not be published.

A CMU student who works with pro-Palestine student organizations on campus said their organization, which they asked PublicSource not to name, had never had reports of hate crimes from students until the escalation following Oct. 7. 

“There were lots of comments at the fence by considerably older men,” the student said. “They called us everything from baby killers to rapists, the most common is terrorist. … Our police had to escort them away. It was really scary.”

CMU has since created a Campus Climate and Bias Reporting Protocol for reporting incidents of bias, harassment and discrimination. 

Peter Kerwin, director of CMU media relations, said in a statement that the university is listening to student leaders and allowing faculty to extend deadlines for exams and papers for students struggling with the crisis.

Students express fear on campus 

Deena Eldaour, a Palestinian student at Pitt whose family is originally from Gaza, said she has noticed increased fear on campus among her peers, especially among other women who wear hijab. 

“They no longer can walk alone or they always feel like people are staring at them,” Eldaour said.

Eldaour, a board member of Students for Justice in Palestine [SJP], said the majority of the discrimination leveled at her community has taken place at rallies on Pitt’s and CMU’s campuses. She noted that during one such rally on CMU’s campus, an agitator approached the group yelling Islamophobic remarks and asking if protesters were going to “bomb” them.  

Another Pitt student, who is Jewish, said there has been a “tense vibe” on campus since the attack and expressed worry about saying anything about Israel. After attending a Jewish student organization meeting soon after Oct. 7, the student recounted, another student came into the meeting shouting and calling attendees “fascist and other names,” the student said.

“This was supposed to be a place for healing and connecting with other Jewish students when we’re in such a vulnerable position,” the student said. “I kind of wished someone had said something [to Pitt administration], but I think everyone was too afraid to.”

The student said that they have always been nervous in Pittsburgh.

“I chose to go to school where the most antisemitic event in [U.S.] history occurred,” the student said. “Until the actual conflict resolves, until there’s a ceasefire, I think it will be tense and simmering under the pot, making people feel bad on both sides.”

A Muslim student at Pitt told PublicSource they were “called terrorists, baby killers” while selling coffee at a Charity Week event for orphans and underprivileged children, and arrived at a meeting room for a gathering of a student organization only to find pro-Israel posters displayed.

“It has been very unsettling over the last few weeks,” the student said.

Pitt has worked to address student safety concerns by staying in contact with student and community leaders, speaking with concerned parents and religious and cultural leaders, coordinating with law enforcement and maintaining security at demonstrations and rallies, according to Stonesifer. 

Eldaour said Islamophobic and anti-Arab sentiments have been heightened by people in power who have propped up harmful rhetoric, including President Joe Biden and Pitt’s chancellor. Following the attacks in Israel, Chancellor Joan Gabel released a statement in which she condemned the actions of Hamas calling them “unconscionable, barbaric acts.” It did not mention Palestinian loss of life.

Eldaour said the word “barbaric” has historically been used against Muslims and Arabs, and could encourage harmful rhetoric directed at students on campus. 

“I think a lot of the negativity harbored came from that,” Eldaour said.

In response to the email, students at SJP sent the chancellor a letter on Oct. 18 criticizing her use of the word “barbaric” and demanding that Pitt “unequivocally recognize and name the suffering of the Palestinian people.” 

Dean of Students Carla Panzella addressed the violence and student concern on campus in an Oct. 13 email noting she serves “all students affected by these tragic and horrifying acts, including our Israeli and Palestinian students, some of whom may be uniquely affected.”   

Eldaour said it’s “really important” that Jewish, Muslim, Israeli and Palestinian organizations on campus connect. “Hostility,” she said, “is the antithesis of both our movements.”

Response includes increased funding, security

Hateful and threatening incidents have been documented throughout the country on college campuses. At Stanford, an Arab student was the victim of a hit-and-run that is being investigated as a hate crime. At Cornell, a student was arrested for making threats to Jewish students online. 

In Vermont, three college students of Palestinian descent were shot on Saturday.

According to a survey of 609 college students by Intelligent, an online magazine, one in five students feel less safe on campus since Oct. 7. Nearly one-third said their mental health has worsened.

The Biden administration on Nov. 14 announced new actions and resources for schools across the country. These include resources on promoting religious inclusion in K-12 schools and in higher education, and a series of webinars for schools. 

The Department of Justice is also awarding more than $38 million in grants to support the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes, increase hate crimes reporting, expand victim services and improve community awareness. This includes more than $8 million in grants to community-based organizations and civil rights groups, including awards to organizations serving Jewish and Arab American communities.

Incidents across the U.S., including the killing of a 6-year-old Palestinian boy in Chicago and an attack directed at a Muslim teen who wears hijab on the subway in New York, have left many Pittsburgh Muslims afraid to go about their daily activities, Mohamed said. 

“We have a lot of work to do to dispel the hate and the misconceptions that currently are happening,” Mohamed said. “It doesn’t help when there’s been so much dehumanizing rhetoric, through the media, through the press, not just over the recent times, but I’m talking about long periods of time, where Muslims and Islam and Arabs may be dehumanized in various ways.”  

Recently, there have also been reports and investigations of graffiti which “can be characterized as antisemitic and political in nature” in Squirrel Hill, according to the spokesperson for the Pittsburgh police. The city’s Department of Public Works is assigned to remove the graffiti. 

Amro Elaswalli, the imam at the Muslim Association of Greater Pittsburgh, said the mosque has hired more security for gatherings such as Friday prayers, Sunday school and other large events.

In an effort to bring together grieving communities and call for peace, more than 100 students and community members from multiple faiths held a candlelight vigil on Nov. 13 at CMU’s campus, and listened to prayers given by Jewish, Muslim and Christian community leaders. 

Elaswalli, who recited a verse from the Qur’an, said it’s important that everyone, regardless of faith and background, come together against violence and war. 

“Whoever kills one soul it’s as if they killed all of mankind,” Elaswalli said during the vigil, reading the English translation. “And whoever saves one soul, it’s as if they saved all of mankind. … I hope we can all reflect on this verse. ” 

Elaswalli said it’s crucial to work on fighting misinformation and maintaining dialogue across marginalized communities.  

“We need to stand up for justice and do our best to make our voices heard,” Elaswalli said. “To be part of the solution and not to be part of the problem.”

A participant at the vigil read a translation of a Jewish prayer, saying it’s important for everyone to recognize the grief and emotions that many are facing right now. Her prayer called for peace and a path forward in which everyone is safe. 

“I think there is hope, but I think it’s going to take a very different approach than what we’ve seen,” she said. “I think that it will take a lot of innovative thinking and openness to do something you’ve never been able to do before in the world.” 

Resources

If you or someone you know has been a victim of an Islamophobic hate crime or an act of discrimination, submit this anonymous form to have your case reviewed by the CAIR-Pittsburgh civil rights department.

To report an antisemitic or safety incident, visit the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s incident report page.

Anyone is welcome to complete the 10/27 Healing Partnership anonymous survey. 

To report incidents of bias related to the respective universities, complete CMU’s report form  or  Pitt’s form.

Editor’s note: This article was updated to improve the accuracy of characterizations of the synagogue at which the 2018 shooting occurred and of one participant’s involvement in the Nov. 13 vigil.

Erin Yudt is an editorial intern at PublicSource and can be reached at erin@publicsource.org.

Betul Tuncer is a student at the University of Pittsburgh serving as a Pittsburgh Media Partnership intern this semester, and can be reached at betulstuncer@gmail.com.

This story was fact-checked by Tanya Babbar.

The post Amid antisemitism and Islamophobia, faith communities and students try to tamp down tension appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

A trans-inclusive fertility clinic is expected to open in Pittsburgh next year, offering sperm and egg donations, surrogacy services, in vitro fertilization, hormone therapy and more, aiming to address shortcomings in healthcare in Pittsburgh for the trans community. 

The clinic will be a partnership between Allegheny Reproductive Health Center [ARHC] and Mate Fertility, an organization dedicated to making the parenthood process affordable, accessible and comfortable. It will be run by Dr. Sheila Ramgopal and Dr. Amy Collins, two Pittsburgh physicians. 

According to the National Library of Medicine, almost 500,000 transgender people experience health care disparities in the United States.

Dena Stanley, executive director of TransYOUniting PGH, a mutual aid non-profit providing resources to Pittsburgh’s trans community, said the coming clinic will be helpful for the region’s transgender and LGBTQ+ community.

“Having a family is still so difficult for us [the trans community],” Stanley said. “Couples are still turned away from adoption or healthcare because they are queer. … This clinic will give a safe option in an affirming place where they are not scared or discriminated against simply because of who they are.”

Dade Lemanski, 32, of Wilkinsburg, said another reproductive clinic in the area isn’t among the trans community’s most pressing needs. Lemanski said many trans people move to Pittsburgh at least in part because of its reputation for more affordable gender-affirming care through Medicaid and UPMC, but added that the healthcare providers here that brand themselves as all-inclusive don’t live up to that.

“Reproduction is an important part of life, but it’s only one part of life,” Lemanski said. “I think we need to focus on current care and truly make it all-inclusive first.”

Bridging the gap with REIs

Ramgopal said that the partnership with Mate Fertility will enhance ARHC’s existing services like administering different kinds of birth control, abortions and hormone therapy. Mate was founded in 2021 by brothers Oliver and Gabriel Bogner to create a more inclusive network of family planning services for people struggling with the high cost and low availability of fertility clinics around the country.

“We have been in talks with companies like Mate for three to four years,” Ramgopal said. “We know we want to provide as many fertility services as possible in as comfortable and accommodating a space as possible, whatever your skin color, gender identity, whatever. … Mate has the more advanced training we need and focuses on groups that haven’t been centered.”

Ramgopal said they hope the ARHC and this new Mate fertility clinic will be under one building someday.

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Gabriel Bogner said the clinic will help address discrimination in healthcare for the LGBTQ+ community. 

“Not only is it difficult to seek fertility care in the U.S., as clinics and providers are mainly in larger cities, it is even harder for the queer community,” Bogner said. “Being in an accepting place in healthcare is so rare, and it shouldn’t be; that’s part of what we’re striving to fix.”

Mate Fertility currently has locations in Oklahoma City, San Francisco and Fresno, Calif. In addition to the Pittsburgh clinic, the company is also opening clinics in Wichita, Kansas, the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and Lubbock and Amarillo in Texas.

Mate Fertility’s partnerships with OB-GYNs as well as reproductive, endocrinology and infertility specialists [REIs] makes them unique among health care providers.

“REIs are basically OB-GYNs with a three-year fellowship that is mainly research,” Bogner said. “Even when people are struggling with getting pregnant, they go to an OB-GYN and then get sent to an REI. … We’re bridging that gap so people do not give up in the process and have easier access.”

The Pittsburgh clinic will offer educational programming in addition to fertility services such as consultations and resources on how gender-affirming care affects fertility, different kinds of infertility and sex education for all sexual orientations.

“Many people do not know about the abundance of fertility services and their own fertility, especially those undergoing gender-affirming care,” Bogner said. “Consultations are a big part of what we do.”

Traci Keen, CEO of Mate Fertility, said Pittsburgh was a market of interest based on the company’s value alignment with ARHC. 

“There are so many factors that go into choosing a clinic location, but geographical access to care and finding partners that align with our values as a company are most important,” Keen said. “This industry is simply not meeting its demands, but we need to work with those that put the patient experience first.”

Stanley said she hopes to partner with the new clinic to gather more research on the trans community.

“We are such an under-researched group; we need more data,” Stanley said. “We need to see how many people use these services to see how we can better help and support them.”

Lemanski said they “basically avoided doctors completely until I moved here a few years ago. … Navigating health care in my 30s is very interesting, especially when you have providers that have these biases and attitudes against [the LGBTQIA+ community] even though they say they don’t.”

Lemanski said that they have had bad experiences at clinics in the area and that they have seen the most bias in OB-GYN reproductive healthcare. 

“There is such a focus on cis-women seeking abortions, putting non-binary and trans-masc people in competition,” Lemanski said. “This zero-sum attitude that ‘this is what you have been given and you need to be happy with it’ needs to go away … We’ve been promised the world but still are not respected.”

The new clinic in Pittsburgh is projected to open next summer. 

“We just want to continue to let people know that we are a safe space and that there are a bunch of different ways to start a family,” Bogner said. “We’re a space of no judgment and are excited to be in Pittsburgh.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to better reflect Lemanski’s reasons for moving to Pittsburgh.

Erin Yudt is an editorial intern at PublicSource and can be reached at erin@publicsource.org.

This story was fact-checked by Sophia Levin. 

The Jewish Healthcare Foundation has contributed funding to PublicSource’s healthcare reporting.

The post Trans-inclusive fertility clinic to open in Pittsburgh within a year appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Two ordinances passed by Pittsburgh City Council this week are set to protect gender-affirming care as many states take steps to outlaw it.

The first bill aims to keep Pittsburgh healthcare providers safe from out-of-state prosecutions by barring city employees from assisting in investigations or proceedings against them in relation to gender-affirming care, which includes social, psychological, behavioral and medical practices supporting people whose gender identities conflict with their genders at birth. 

The second bill would only take effect if Pennsylvania adopted restrictive laws on gender-affirming care, a “worst-case scenario,” according to Councilmember Barb Warwick.

“The second bill would be enforced when gender-affirming care is criminalized at the state and/or federal level,” Warwick said. “It’s a bill that we are really happy to pass, but we hope that people do not ever need to use it.”

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Both laws, sponsored by councilmembers Warwick, Bobby Wilson and Bruce Kraus, extend to  gender-affirming care health service providers, recipients and legal guardians. The first mirrors measures approved by city council last summer to protect abortion providers in Pittsburgh from out-of-state limitations and prosecution.

These initiatives come in the wake of 22 states passing legislation criminalizing gender-affirming care this year, including nearby West Virginia, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Ohio legislators have also introduced a bill criminalizing this care, which is awaiting a vote in the state House. 

Should a similar law be passed in Pennsylvania, or at the federal level, the second of the two city bills would only give city officials limited power to protect residents, by deprioritizing their enforcement. 

“If there is a court order, we might not be able to do much, but it will be at the bottom of our [priority] list,” said Warwick.

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Maria Montaño, communications director of Mayor Ed Gainey’s office, said the passing of these bills was “essential” not only for those who need the care but for health care providers as well.

“Gender-affirming care is health care and life-saving care; it saved my life,” said Montaño, who is the city’s first transgender woman press secretary. “As a city that has world-renowned and innovative health care, we have a responsibility to protect all forms of health care.”

Montaño said that the bills prove Pittsburgh is “ready to welcome everyone with open arms.”

Dena Stanley, executive director of TransYOUniting PGH, a mutual aid non-profit, providing resources to Pittsburgh’s trans community, said these bills are a “step in the right direction” but do not provide for other pressing needs of the trans community.

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“With these [bills] passing, we will see even more of an uptake for all kinds of support,” Stanley said. “It is great that we want to create a safe haven for the community, but  [City Council] needs to talk to us first to ensure our safety and well being as a whole.”

Stanley said that the organization has in recent months seen a greater increase of out-of-state individuals — mainly from Texas, Tennessee and Florida — requesting housing and financial services. 

The organization currently partners with Proud Haven, an overnight shelter dedicated to housing LGBTQIA+ youth. 

“Protection includes housing, and most shelters here are not accommodating to our community,” Stanley said. “The city simply needs to communicate with the community more.”

Erin Yudt is an editorial intern at PublicSource and can be reached at erin@publicsource.org.

The post Pittsburgh council protects gender-affirming care from out-of-state prosecution appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.