The email below from our PLC member Kevin Taylor was sent to Diana Noonan in Denver but could apply to any of our communities and prompt us to act if we can possibly do so. It is a bridge building email. It shows that what we are doing is important beyond the classroom.
I feel that as teachers we are bound to report all instances of abuse and human rights violations in our communities (beyond instances of abuse of children) if we are aware of them.
Kevin shares:
Hi Ben and Diana,
This last week a parent from our school who is very involved in the effort to fight human trafficking came to speak to our school’s Justice Club about some things that are taking place in Littleton and Denver. Basically, there is a network of massage parlors throughout the metro Denver area run by Chinese organized crime, in which trafficked victims (mostly Chinese women) have been coerced into prostitution. This parent asked our students and me to spread the word that her organization (Restore NY) is looking for people (especially women) who understand the cultural background of these women, who speak Mandarin, and who would like to work with this organization and Denver-area law enforcement to help women who have been rescued or who, sadly, are in jail on prostitution charges.
I know that there are teachers of Mandarin Chinese in the DPS system, and I thought I’d see if you could pass this message on to them in case any of them are interested in joining this fight. If any of them are, I can connect them with this parent, who can tell them more about training (which is sometime around the first part of May) and anything else it might involve.
Many thanks,
Kevin
Spanish Teacher and Director of the Veritas et Caritas Institute (VCI)
http://www.frcs.org
3 thoughts on “Human Trafficking”
Wow, a woman just met with me last week about this issue; probably the same woman? If so, she has a daughter who is a student at Valor, too. It’s a harrowing situation. Estimates by police suggest about 80 massage-really-brothels in the Denver metro area (minimum, those are already known). She also mentioned other places in the USA where the same situation (Chinese-run brothels with women trafficked in) is becoming more prevalent (recently, Atlanta and in Indiana).
One of the reasons I was told they were looking for Mandarin speakers in Denver was because across the whole metro area, there is only one Mandarin-speaking police officer anywhere. They need Mandarin-speakers especially who can be on call, so if there’s an arrest involving Mandarin-speaking women, someone can be there on short notice.
I agree. Social justice is inseparable from the work we do in our classrooms. In the Latin community there is a debate over the presence of mock slave auctions at junior classical league events. Imagine white privileged kids auctioning each other off, and then claiming thst this is a historical reenactment of Roman slavery which had nothing to do with race, so don’t be so sensitive. It makes light of our country’s history of slavery, and of the continuing presence of human trafficking, as mentioned above. What does this say to kids of diverse backgrounds, who have a closer connection to slavery and human trafficking?
If this issue is important to you, and you are in the San Francisco area, check out M.I.S.S.E.Y. My foster daughter has volunteered with them and they do important work.
with love,
Laurie
PS This is an issue everywhere…..even here in our cornfields. People are trafficked everywhere….right under our noses….because we don’t want to believe it is happening.