Iowa teens talk human trafficking

Iowa teenagers are beginning to talk about a crime that targets them: human trafficking.

Advocates, law enforcement officers and school officials are furthering the conversation with new programs in schools that help teenagers understand and prevent the underground crime in their towns.

But advocates are concerned that human trafficking already is much more mainstream than most teens or their parents realize.

Human trafficking is a crime where a third party benefits by using force, fraud or coercion to compel a victim into performing sex acts or labor services.

So far in 2016, 56 human trafficking cases were reported in Iowa, with 49 of them categorized as sex trafficking, according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center.

Among them: A Waterloo couple was arrested in late August on human trafficking charges asserting they forced two teens from Chicago to commit sex acts for money. The case remains under investigation.

The Human Trafficking Reporting System found that the average sex trafficking victim across the nation is female and aged 17 or younger. The average trafficker is male and between ages 18 and 34.

Ruth Buckels, of Story City, is the statewide coordinator for Teens Against Human Trafficking, a group started by an Ankeny teen in 2013, meant for teenagers to begin talking to each other about trafficking. The program is now under the not-for-profit Youth and Shelter Services in Ames, of which Buckels is an employee. Six of her foster children previously had been victims of human trafficking.

Buckels said it is shocking to her how limited students' and parents' awareness of trafficking is.

'What Iowans typically believe is that these youth are stolen or that you never see them again. That does happen,' she said. 'That is not the most common cases we're hearing about. It's family selling or trafficking their own children to pay their bills to buy the drugs, pay the rent. People ... don't see that it's a huge integrated business. Interrupting their availability to our youth is exactly what we're trying to do.'

Some aspects of popular culture present the crime to teens as being normal or routine, said Mike Ferjak, head of the Iowa Attorney General's Human Trafficking Enforcement and Prosecution Initiative.

'Go look up the cartoon show 'Lil Pimp,'' he said. 'Go look up the lyrics to 'Blurred Lines.' Look at the cover for 'Grand Theft Auto 5' where you get extra points for killing the prostitute. It's every day stuff.'

COMMUNITY AWARENESS

Ferjak said he understands the importance of teens talking about human trafficking.

'It's one of the very few proactive things that can be done about trafficking,' he said. 'You put some dude in a uniform or in a suit in front of a classroom ... it's the 'you're trying to scare me.''

The Iowa Attorney General's Crime Victim Assistance Department funded Braking Traffik, a program under Quad Cities' Family Resources organization. Braking Traffik held six training events across the state this fall to train the people who go into middle schools and high schools to talk about trafficking.

'One of the biggest goals is creating safe environments in schools where students would feel comfortable disclosing abuse,' said Cathy O'Keefe, executive director of Braking Traffik. 'We want to send the message to students that they shouldn't be afraid to go to law enforcement for help.'

Teresa Davidson, director of Cedar Rapid's anti-human trafficking non-profit Chains Interrupted, attended one of the sessions.

Davidson recently visited Marion High School, a school in Clear Creek-Amana and Cedar Rapids' youth homeless shelter at Foundation 2.

She spoke in Vivian Quinn's life skills class, in which health and sexuality are discussed.

'As educators, we need to be on the edge and realistic about what is happening in our community,' Quinn said. 'It makes me more aware of the students that tend to be more vulnerable. Hopefully, it will change my behavior in that students know they have a safe place here, and they have a lot of caring adults.'

TALKING TO TEENS

Since Teens Against Human Trafficking was started three years ago, local chapters have been established in cities including Ames, Fort Dodge, Newton, Marshalltown, Iowa Falls, and Cedar Falls.

Two Cedar Rapids teenagers at Kennedy High School — seniors Arshi Munjal and Brooke Timmerman — started their own chapter after a program coordinator with Teens Against Human Trafficking spoke in their classroom last spring.

Munjal said it was the first time she heard of human trafficking.

'That sounds like something that happens in Third World countries,' she said. 'You don't think it's happening in Iowa, of all places.'

The group, with only a few regular members, meets every Tuesday during lunch. Its members said they want to bring in more speakers and have more conversations about how they could prevent human trafficking here.

When Buckels and Davidson visit with teens, they start by defining trafficking and giving real-life examples.

One example — told to students without specifics — is of a Marion teen who was persuaded to perform a sex act on a boy she thought she was dating, only to be recorded and blackmailed into doing sexual favors for others who paid him.

'It's not very hard to convince teenagers because most of them have seen some form of it, which is really scary,' Davidson said. 'Even when we go into regular high schools, almost every time, somebody says 'I was approached by this,' or 'my uncle tried this.''

Buckels said she explains to students how a trafficking scenario could start: a stranger messages you in an online chat room, or vulnerable teen suddenly meets someone willing to be a friend or buy gifts.

Then Buckels tells teens to look for warning signs. 'If I ... wanted to open the conversation up to 'Do you have human trafficking here?' I would say things like 'Do you have youth that are consistently late to school? Do you have youth that miss the same day of school every week and their parents aren't taking them to a medical appointment or a counseling appointment?''

Davidson hopes to further the conversation in the next week with a human trafficking conference Thursday with awareness advocates from around the state.

Timmerman, the high school senior, said she has her own goals to stop trafficking, and wants Kennedy's Teens Against Human Trafficking group to visit Cedar Rapids middle schools.

'As teenagers, we don't think we have a lot of power, but we can change a lot of things if we really tried,' she said. 'If we could inform more people, we could change human trafficking.'

IF YOU GO

What: Human Trafficking: Not in Our Town! conference

When: Nov. 17 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Where: New Covenant Bible Church, 3090 N Center Point Road, Robins, Iowa

Other info: RSVP here. A cost of $15 covers meals and snacks.

TOPICS

Overview of the issue

How to identify a victim and what to do

Review of cases in Cedar Rapids/Iowa City areas

Presentation by a survivor, Stockholm syndrome

Specific and Unique treatment for the HT survivor

The mystery of 'Loving an Abuser' (Stockholm syndrome/Trauma Bond)

Teens Against Trafficking in CR

Debut of our 'Stop the Demand' program in Cedar Rapids

Breakdowns in the system for victims and survivors

'Next Steps' for our coalition