KeyPress Not Registering

Hey,
So i know that the flash object needs to have focus in order for the key event to fire, but i am having an issue where i click a button in the flash window and the events stop firing.

The button activates a box2d world and i don’t know if that has anything to do with it. but as soon as i hit the start button, the key events no longer seem active until i click again.

the key listeners are assigned to the stage and there are no links out, external calls, or external files. I just can’t seem to figure out why the events are no longer triggering.

can anyone help me out with this?