My Story

I created this web site and organization because I have experienced firsthand how widespread the problem of sexual violence is in our society. My name is Angela and I am a college student at a university in the mid-west. I have dedicated the last 4 years of my life to spreading awareness on the dangers of sexual violence. At the beginning of my fight, my target was repeat sex offenders and I was active in the Chicago media and politics. As I spoke out more and shared my story, I began to discover how prevalent of a problem sexual and gender violence is in our culture. It still amazes and saddens me to see sexual violation affect so many, yet it is a taboo subject. Statistics show that 1 in 3 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime! (Northwest Center Against Sexual Assault) I admit that I was a bit ignorant to the subject before I was attacked in 1996.

I was abducted by knifepoint when I was 17 years old leaving my job at a shopping mall in a suburb of Chicago. It was the summer after I graduated from high school, and I had left my job to attend a graduation luau party at a friend's house. I was walking across the parking lot towards my car, enjoying the evening sun. I put my key in the door lock and I saw a shadow come quickly up behind me from the left. A man grabbed me from behind and pressed a knife to my throat. I offered him the money in my purse, but he told me that it wasn't my money that he wanted. I knew then that it was a very dangerous situation. He pushed me into his car. He bound my hands behind my back, put Band Aids over my eyes, and sunglasses concealing them. He started driving around the perimeter of the road that encircled the mall. Although he was unaware of it, I could see out of the corners of my eyes. I freed my hands from the bindings, but kept them behind my back. I surveyed the situation noticing that the door was locked, and the seat belt was across my chest. We were still driving on the road around the mall and I knew that I had to get out. I took a deep breath, tried to undo the seatbelt and unlock the door. I wasn't fast enough. He grabbed me, touched the knife to my cheek, and said, "Try that shit again, bitch, and your face won't be so pretty anymore." He bound my hands behind back again, so tight that I winced in pain. He drove for about 40 minutes and pulled into a forest preserve where I was sexually assaulted.

When they caught him a few days later, I found out that he was out on parole. Robert Koppa was a repeat sex offender who had an extensive criminal record. In 1980, he committed 3 different crimes against 3 different young women. He was convicted of rape, kidnap, and murdering a beautiful 16 year old girl in Chicago named Julie Angel. I met some of his previous victims, and we started a petition drive stating the need for tougher laws on repeat offenders. I became great friends with the mother and sister of Julie Angel.

We started a petition drive stating the need for tougher laws for repeat sexual offenders. With the help of our community, we had 5,000 signatures. I delivered the petitions to the Senate Majority Leader, James Philip with the Chicago media behind me. A few days later, the Attorney General of Illinois Jim Ryan's office called us and wanted to set up a meeting. With our input, a package of legislation was drafted by the Attorney General. I did a press conference with him a few months after I was attacked. All of the bills were enacted in 1998.

Since then, I have been very outspoken against sexual violence. I was the keynote speaker at a conference on rape and rape prevention given by the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault in October 2000. The fall semester 2000, I was appointed to serve on 2 committees on our student government. They are the Sexual Assault Relationship Violence Committee and the Campus Safety Committee. I spoke at a sorority on campus and was blown away by how many young women have been affected by sexual assault. Every time I give a speech, it fuels my fire even more to keep on going because of the wonderful feedback and stories that people share with me. That is one of my goals; to encourage people to talk about sexual and gender violence and act out against it. I encourage everyone to get involved, support local legislation, start an organization, make a difference. And each of you has the power to make changes in your community. Whether it be big or small, we all need to do our part . . .

P.A.V.E.