Thames Valley school board trustees will view a detailed plan of how the board will work to prevent sex trafficking for the first time this week.
Thames Valley school board trustees will view a detailed plan of how the board will work to prevent sex trafficking for the first time this week.
The protocol is being released at a board meeting Tuesday in response to a provincial directive to Ontario school boards, and includes mandatory training for staff to identify signs of a student getting trafficked or engaged in trafficking.
“We know that the average age of sex trafficking is 13, so this is both an elementary school and a secondary school issue for our students,” said Kathryn Lambert, mental health lead of the safe schools and well-being program. “We are looking at it from a prevention lens, ensuring our educators have the capacity to promote healthy relationships as a child develops, and as early on as possible and know how to reach out for support.”
The protocol, which Lambert calls “a massive leap forward,” includes opportunities for parents to attend workshops about cyber security and cyber hygiene and how to support a child if “they are worried about them.”
The board is working with agencies throughout the region to provide support during the next three years, Lambert said.
The new plan also gave educators a chance to analyze curriculum, to make sure they are using best practices and are up-to-date in their knowledge, she said.
“It’s a good opportunity to raise awareness and shine the light,” Lambert said. “It creates opportunities to critically reflect on what we need to do differently moving forward. To have meaningful change in how we work with families and students and who we partner with community partners.
“We all have to work together in a trauma-informed lens in order to be effective and not cause more harm to students and families.”
During the pandemic the number of incidents of sex trafficking has increased significantly, especially along the Highway 401 corridor, Lambert said.
Southwestern Ontario, located close to Toronto and the US border, with its cities laced together by Ontario super-highways, is considered a hotbed for human trafficking.
Ontario has the highest rate of police-reported incidents in the nation.
“Because we have access to all children and youth, schools are uniquely positioned to play a big role in prevention, as well as early identification, seeing some of the red flags and helping connect them (students) to other supports,” Lambert said.
Elyssa Rose, the anti-trafficking program co-ordinator at Atlohsa Family Healing Services, said Indigenous women and girls especially are vulnerable, representing 50 per cent of those being trafficked while only four per cent of the population.
Atlohsa, one of several agencies partnering with the board, has more than 170 participants active its anti-trafficking program, the youngest 11 years old.
It offers a safe, confidential place to serve people impacted by trafficking.
While the program comes “with an Indigenous lens” it also assists non-Indigenous women.
“So many people think it’s just the vulnerable (being trafficked),” Rose said “I have girls under the age of 20 who have been trafficked who come from very good homes, religious homes, homes without any abuse, and they had everything provided for them.
“It could happen to anybody, because money is the driver.”
For youth emerging from the claustrophobic conditions of the pandemic sometimes it is difficult “to see the red flags,” Rose said.
“A lot of this is not having an understanding of what a healthy relationship is,” she said. “We have to start planting the seeds of what violence is and what it is not. We are fully shifting to support this because of how important it is.”