Shannon Roberts, Family and Consumer Sciences teacher and FCCLA advisor at Mason County High School spoke to the Maysville Rotary on Tuesday.

Along with sophomore FCCLA member Alyssa Cracraft, Roberts presented a project regarding the very real problem of human trafficking.

Cracraft detailed the definitions of human trafficking and how it is a problem that not only affects larger cities, but even places like rural America.

“Human trafficking is the exchange of either labor or sexual acts for commercial goods,” Cracraft said. “This is not to be confused with kidnapping or other similar acts.”

Cracraft said the keyword in defining what constitutes human trafficking is “exchange.” An example she used was if a parent were to exchange their child for sexual acts in order to receive drugs. With the opioid epidemic so grossly affecting this region, both Roberts and Cracraft said this example is not so far fetched.

“Unfortunately, human trafficking is everywhere,” she said, “even though we may not notice or know what it is.”

Maysville Police Chief Ron Rice, also a Rotarian, agreed with Cracraft’s remarks, stating human trafficking happens everywhere, including in Maysville. While he would not mention the business publicly, he said there have been cases of human trafficking for restaurant labor in Maysville.

According to prior research, Cracraft said there are currently 17 open cases of human trafficking within Kentucky, with 582 child victim investigations since 2013. The top three labor trafficking industries in Kentucky, Cracraft said, are domestic servitude, agriculture and restaurants.

Cracraft said the main goal of the project is to educate community members and family members on the dangers and signs of human trafficking.

“We plan to attend meetings, conferences and converse with knowledgeable leaders who are trained on this specific issue,” Cracraft said.

Cracraft said earlier this month, she and other FCCLA members and advisors attended the Kentucky Human Trafficking Task Force conference in Frankfort.

Roberts said something that shocked her after attending the conference was what two members of the Louisville Metro Police Department’s Special Victim’s Unit were saying about their own officers.

“They talked about how many of their own officers in the Louisville Metro Police Department didn’t know how to distinguish human trafficking from child abuse, because they’re so synonymous in so many situations and that the law enforcement in their department has not been properly trained,” she said.

To better become educated on human trafficking and share the information with the community, Cracraft said she and other FCCLA members plan to attend a human trafficking and sexual exploitation conference in Louisville on Dec. 5.

Going forward, both Roberts and Cracraft told the Rotarians in order to personally combat human trafficking to become better educated in the subject, to report any suspicion of the act to law enforcement and raise awareness.

As part of the project, Roberts said FCCLA has been asked to work with Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear on this topic. Roberts said Beshear is working on developing a curriculum for public high schools to educate students on human trafficking, so they can recognize what the action is and how to identify it.

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Jonathan Wright

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