New Mexico aims to expand training

Families Department confirmed that four caseworkers in the Protective Services Division were placed on paid administrative leave while the case is investigated. No one from the agency spoke at Friday’s news conference.

Meanwhile, Balderas said he’s teamed up with district attorneys and law enforcement agencies across the state — including First Judicial District Attorney Marco Serna in Santa Fe and the Santa Fe Police Department — to expand human trafficking prevention training for school personnel.

“We want to make this human trafficking training available to as many school personnel, teachers and nurses throughout the state of New Mexico,” he said.

Kristine Meurer, director of student, family and community support at Albuquerque Public Schools, said that district has provided the trafficking training for nurses in the past. In the coming school year, she said at the news conference, the district will expand that to school counselors, with volunteer training for teachers and other school staff.

Serna spoke briefly at the gathering to thank the attorney general for initiating the effort.

He also alluded to the abuse and slaying of 13-year-old Jeremiah Valencia in Nambé late last year. The lead suspect in the case, Thomas Ferguson, the boyfriend of the boy’s mother, was found dead in his jail cell late last month. Jeremiah’s mother and Ferguson’s son are still held on felony charges in the case.

“These types of crimes and any crimes against children are devastating to communities,” Serna said, “and I know my district has recently seen this type of devastation. It’s initiatives like these that are going to protect our youth.”