In the neighborhood of Little Village in the southwest side
of Chicago, a woman was found to have operated several brothels in the
community. Rubicela Montero, a 38-year old mother, had not been able to find
young girls to meet the demand of her clientele. However, she met a 16-year old
girl student at the Roberto Clemente Community Academy through her son, and
hired her into prostitution. Montero even picked up the 16-year old girl at her
high school and transported her to the brothel while still donning her school
uniform.
Perhaps if the student’s teachers had noticed signs of
change in her behavior, this transaction between trafficker and victim could
have been avoided. Even if there were no noticeable signs, would students be
cognizant of the ways in which traffickers target them?
In 2011, the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children estimated that 100,000 American children were at risk of being
trafficked into commercially sexually exploitative acts. Girls are being
targeted at as young as 12 to 14 years old, and boys, 11 to 13 years old.
Traffickers exploit school children because of their
vulnerability and because the market demands young victims. Traffickers target
children on the way to and from school and at school-sponsored events. They
also use teenagers who have already been solicited to recruit their peers and
friends or seduce girls with the “loverboy” approach. A particularly insidious
way that traffickers recruit is through
skip
parties.
Educators and the school staff are in strategic positions of
influence to address domestic human trafficking because they spend considerable
amounts of time daily with the same students and are able to build
relationships with them, if they so choose. They also have the responsibility
to report suspected exploitations of their students to law enforcement. The importance
of school teachers, administrators, and staff to know how to identify signs of
vulnerability for trafficking and how to address them is undervalued.
Some identifying signs of trafficking include:
- Truancy
- Runaway behavior
- Mentions of frequent
travels to other cities
- Signs of physical trauma,
withdrawn behavior, depression, or fear
- Limited control over one’s
schedule or identification documents
- Hungry, malnourished, or inappropriately
dressed for the weather and school
- Sudden change in behavior
or material possessions (owns and displays expensive items)
- Referencing sexual
situations or terminology of the commercial sex industry that are beyond
age-specific norms
- Having a “boyfriend” who
is significantly older (10+ years)
- Engaging
in sexually promiscuous behavior
Schools can collectively respond while also inviting their
communities to participate in awareness. With an increase number of community
members who can identify warning signs, traffickers will be more wary of their
actions, which could lead to a decrease of trafficking activity in that area.
Here are ways that schools implement protective and
preventative measures:
- Find out the reasons for
each student’s decrease in school attendance & engagement
- Train school staff on how
to identify and report warning signs
- Train counselors and
social workers on how to educate students on the subject of trafficking
and work with student victims through creative and supportive outreach
- Implement protocol on
computer and cell phone use in school
- Ensure that the campus
structure is secure and safe for students
- Inform the community
surrounding the school and coordinate a community response
- Incorporate restorative
and transformative justice
Esther Liew
Program Development Intern
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