CHARLESTON, W.Va. — U.S. Attorney for Southern West Virginia Will Thompson says teachers and child protective services workers need to have more tools to better identify victims of human trafficking.
Thompson announced Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Charleston his office has partnered with State Police and the West Virginia Center for Children’s Justice to create training videos about the issue.
At least 20,000 people under the age of 18 are being exploited primarily for sexual purposes, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The average age of those children is 13. About 80 percent are girls.
Thompson said many of these child victims go to school, which is why teachers should be on high alert for warning signs.
“About half of the minor victims actually attend school while they’re being victimized, so we thought that would be good for teachers to make them aware of some signs to be watching out for and what to do when they do suspect human trafficking,” he said on Tuesday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
Some of those warning signs include family problems at home, unexplained absences, if a child shows up to school with a new toy, jewelry, cell phone or other flashy items.
Thompson said he wants other school service personnel to watch their training video and be aware of what’s going on with their students as well.
“It’s not just for teachers. Sometimes students feel more comfortable talking to the school bus drivers, cooks, or secretaries so we want all of the school personnel to watch it,” he said.
CPS workers have been asked to watch the video too because Thompson said they encounter many trafficking victims from the child welfare system.
“About two-thirds of the victims have been involved in either the juvenile justice or foster care system, so that’s why we wanted to target a video toward our child protective services workers,” he said.
Thompson said what most people may not know is that almost half of victims are trafficked by their own family member.
“If you look at under age 10, about 80 percent of those are trafficked by a family member,” he said.
Parents and other adult family members are usually looking to sell their kids for drug money particularly in West Virginia, Thompson said.
“That seems to be the most common form we deal with here in the southern part of the state. That goes hand and hand with the addiction crisis,” he said.
A number of state and federal agencies joined Thompson at his Tuesday’s press conference including officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the West Virginia Department of Education, the West Virginia Board of Education, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, the West Virginia Fusion Center, and Cabell, Kanawha, Mercer and Wayne county schools.