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May 13, 2014
catholic schools
CATHOLIC EDUCATION INSPIRES
leadership.
T
he Valley Catholic
Presentation students look at realities of
human trafficking
By Amy Pizarro
A stunning rise in human-trafficking
crimes around the world and in the
Bay Area prompted Presentation High
School to set aside regular classwork
for a day in April to focus on the topic.
The Student Development Day was
devoted to guest speakers, insightful
documentary films and local organizations that educated the Presentation
community about this alarming trend.
Human trafficking, which is sometimes referred to as “modern-day
slavery,” is trade in humans, most
commonly for sexual acts, forced labor
and domestic servitude. The mood was
somber as students heard startling
facts about “the fastest-growing crime
on our planet,” according to Betty Ann
Boeving, founder of the Bay Area AntiTrafficking Coalition:
• Globally the industry of human
trafficking generates $32 billion a year.
• There are 48 people trafficked every
day in the United States.
• For every one victim of sex trafficking there are eight victims in labor
trafficking.
• Typical price for a person being
sold in the United States is $90.
• 900 people have been convicted in
California for trafficking-related crimes
since 2007.
• 27 million people around the
world are current victims of human
trafficking.
“There are more slaves now than at
any other point in human history,” said
Boeving, who described California as
being particularly vulnerable to trafficking due to its proximity to ports.
Statistics show that more than 40
percent of international trafficking victims enter through the Bay Area, and
that it happens in all types of places
– residential brothels, massage parlors,
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restaurants and nail salons. “Every type
of human trafficking has occurred here
in San Jose,” Boeving said.
The problem is as domestic as it is
international. Boeving shared tales of
teenage girls being lured to California
from the Midwest with promises of sunshine and swimsuits. This has helped
spur the BAATC to conduct trainings
at airports in San Jose and Oakland,
where flight attendants and other airline
employees see upwards of one million
people per year.
“We need a Bay Area that knows
what human trafficking is,” she said. “It
would be easy to get bolted to our chairs
in despair, but we just have to break
down the issue. We have to send the
message to traffickers that they cannot
do business in the Bay Area.”
Students also heard from San Jose
Police Officer Kyle Oki and FBI Special Agent Ann Trombetta who work
together to combat human trafficking
in the Bay Area. Oki explained that human trafficking didn’t come under the
law until 2006, and law enforcement
agencies are still scrambling to catch
up. By July every officer in the San Jose
Police Department will have undergone
special training.
During lunch, Presentation students
mingled with representatives from 17
local agencies that fight human trafficking and provide related human services.
“It is a common myth that human
trafficking only happens to people of
low socioeconomic status or people in
foreign countries, but that is not true,”
said Prese