The YES Project By Steve Kozachik

By Steve Kozachik

If you have a computer, your son and your daughter are vulnerable to being sex trafficked, and the ‘relationship’ may begin in the innocence of an on-line contact from right within your home. That’s the sad new reality in which we live.

In November of last year, the ASU School of Social Work conducted what it called the YES Project. It stands for Youth Experiences Survey and the goal was to explore the sex trafficking experiences of our runaway and homeless kids. The results validate the need to be vigilant in building a close and trust-based relationship with our children.

The YES Project studied the prevalence of sex trafficking experiences among homeless youth, from 18-25 years old, each of whom had received services from social service agencies some time during July of last year. It revealed some startling data. For example, 25.6% of the kids who had involvement with a social service provider reported some history of having been sex trafficked. That means 1 in 4 homeless kids who show up in a shelter have been sold for sex. Further, suicidal ideas may be as high as 80% among homeless youth, and 2/3 of them have attempted suicide. And in a related study it was found that 4 in 10 of the homeless kids surveyed had been in foster care by the age of 10, and none of them had experienced a non-abusive home environment.

With statistics like those, we have got to get the message out to our kids that internet relationships can go south real fast. And the results for runaways or for kids who are plucked from their homes through an on-line relationship are life threatening. The sex trafficking experiences of homeless kids are generally classified as survival sex; that is, trading sex for money, food, drugs or a place to sleep. Youth who are drawn into these types of relationships are your kids friends, classmates – and potentially your own child. Nobody is exempt from being the target of a sex predator on the internet.

With all of this in mind, last Month I reached out to the Superintendent of TUSD, Dr. H.T. Sanchez, and to the Superintendent of Public Schools in Pima County, Dr. Linda Arzoumanian. I asked both of them how we could partner in getting the message of vulnerability into the classrooms of our public schools. I offered my connections with trafficking survivors who are available and willing to join me in our public school classrooms or school assemblies and share their personal experiences.

Dr. Arzoumanian was quick to reply. That’s good. Our TUSD Superintendent has not. That’s a very sad commentary. My offer is still open. Each day that it goes unanswered, the kids in our Tucson public school system miss out on a critical lesson that they may not get two chances to learn.

This is the March issue of Arizona Bilingual. Soon the school year will be over, and the kids will be out for the summer. Idle hands become the Devil’s workshop – idle time puts our kids at risk. I believe getting the message from trafficking survivors out to the classrooms before the end of the school year is very important.

If you agree, I invite you to share your thoughts with Dr. Sanchez. He has my contact information, as well as a letters from me offering to bring this message into the schools. Can we continue to ignore the reality of how vulnerable our kids are? Sure. Should we? Help me deliver the message to our School leadership that we should not.