Guest Columist: The many faces of human trafficking

Since January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month, what do you think of when you hear the term "human trafficking"? If you're like most people, you think of a story like the following true story, where police conduct an operation at a suspected residential brothel and encounter Sally, a 25-year-old citizen of Korea. Sally came to the U.S. having been promised a job as a maid. Instead, she was threatened with violence and forced to work in a brothel until she made $15,000. But the brothel owner retained $10,000, plus additional fees for food and a motel room when she could not work. After five years she's only made $4,000. This is just one of the many stories of girls and women being trafficked from overseas.

But did you know that human trafficking proliferates within the United States?

For example, another all too common true story - Sixteen year old Katie becomes rebellious and begins having sex with boyfriends. She meets Jacob (an adult) and develops a crush on him, when he romanticizes her. Not long after, Jacob is arrested on a parole violation. While he's in custody, his sister befriends Katie and introduces her to prostitution. Katie prostitutes for several months while Jacob is in jail. When he gets out, he and Katie start a relationship, and she (now 17-years-old) supports him through prostitution.

According to a March, 2016 national study (Youth in the Sex Trade) funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, and conducted by the Center for Court Innovation, the vast majority of sex trafficking victims are from the United States rather than other countries. Eighty percent of U.S. participants in the study met the legal definition of sex trafficking at some point in their lives, either because they had a pimp or, in most cases because they were under the age of 18 when they first traded sex. 77% of all respondents indicated that their first experience trading sex took place while under the age of 18. (The average age was 15.8 years old.). And almost one-third of participants had their first sex experience under the age of 13, pointing to probable childhood sexual trauma. (30% of females reported that their first sex experience was nonconsensual.)

Therefore, Desiree's story is not all that unusual, unfortunately. Desiree had been sexually abused by her step-father for her entire childhood, and when she was 17, he added a new twist. He asked her to get dressed up for a special night with his friends and sold her for sex for the evening, repeating this "special night" on a monthly basis, for no reason other than to have control over her. As an adult, Desiree continues to be confused by this experience, as she liked the positive attention she received on those nights, but also continues to be haunted by a deep shame.

Or consider Tina's story: A man and woman were arrested on drug related charges and their 15-year-old daughter, Tina, was put in the foster care system. While there, Tina received medical attention for chronic infections, and her doctor discovered extensive vaginal damage. Tina disclosed that beginning from the time she was 12, her parents sold her for commercial sex acts to pay their debt to drug dealers, and that some situations involved gang rapes.

These are the many faces of human trafficking that are occurring in the United States today. The stories of young teenage girls getting lured into "the life" is heartbreaking. Here, in South Lake Tahoe, a coalition called PATH (Partners Against the Trafficking of Humans) is taking steps to prevent this from happening in our community. In March 2016, PATH arranged for a trainer from 3 Strands Global to educate all ninth graders at South Tahoe High School on trafficking awareness and prevention. PATH will be repeating this program again in 2017, and is working to expand the program in an age appropriate manner to 5th-, 7th-, and 11th-graders.

For more information about PATH and the work they are doing in South Lake Tahoe, contact them at PathSoTahoe@gmail.com.