Program helps schools respond to human trafficking

Educators in more than 100 middle schools and high schools in six counties in Miami Valley got human trafficking training last year as part of the School Trafficking Outreach Program.

Tony Talbot, director of Abolition Ohio and interim executive director of the human rights center at the University of Dayton, spoke about the program to a few dozen people at Monday’s meeting of the Ohio attorney general’s Human Trafficking Commission. This was the first time training like this took place for one full year, Talbot said.

Through the program, educators are instructed on how to present sensitive information to students and how to deal with trauma triggers, Talbot said.

“We still have room to keep growing and growing,” she said. “It’s intensive because you can’t just turn over the materials and give a classroom presentation because a kid might come forward and ... if the school’s not prepared on how to respond, you’re going to cause more harm than good.”

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine listed education as an area of focus in his 2016 annual report. According to the report, 151 potential victims of human trafficking were identified and more than a third were 20 years old or younger.

The School Trafficking Outreach Program received a nearly $15,000 grant from the Ohio Children’s Trust Fund, a few thousand from the University of Dayton and $1,500 from the Free to Run Foundation, a local anti-trafficking foundation in Troy, Talbot said.

“Human trafficking is a major issue that happens here,” Talbot said. “It happens in cities; it happens in suburbs; it happens in rural area and it affects our youth.”

In 2016, law enforcement reported 135 human trafficking investigations leading to 79 arrests and 28 successful criminal convictions.