Sometimes, it is all in the wording. House Bill 164, sponsored by State Representatives Helene Keeley and Tim Dukes along with State Senators Margaret Rose Henry and Gerald Hocker, would create the Human Trafficking Interagency Coordinating Council. This would replace the council by the same name but without the word “Interagency”. I like this bill. It will put more of an onus on spreading awareness about this awful thing happening in our state and would give more representation across state agencies. But the best part is it would add five at-large members to the council which could be either victims of trafficking or advocates. One of those five will serve as Vice-Chair of the council.
What I love about this bill is that public awareness signs can be placed at establishments of the Council’s choosing. Many pimps lure what I can only call victim prostitutes into performing sex acts at hotels and motels. So much so that folks are being asked to take pictures of hotel rooms when they stay at them. Authorities want to see if they are the same rooms as ones depicted online on sites that advertise prostitution, like good old Craigslist and Backpage. Although I do see someone on Craigslist has been making it their daily mission to flag as much stuff on there as possible. Not this guy. Place skeeves me out and education keeps me too busy for that!
I do think having a representative from the Department of Education could be helpful for this council. I think all Delaware educators, parents, and students should get training on what human sex trafficking is, what the signs to look out for are, and what they can do about it as citizens of our state. Having someone to coördinate that with our schools could be helpful to getting the word out. While anyone could be lured into being a victim of human sex trafficking, the homeless population or runaways are considered to be somewhat easier for pimps to manipulate. There are homeless students in Delaware. Teenagers are one of the pimp’s primary targets as well, so educating students on how pimps brainwash their victims is very important.
This is the second article of legislation introduced in the 149th Delaware General Assembly dealing with human trafficking this year. A lot of the credit for that goes to Yolanda Schlabach who has made it her mission in life to end this scourge on Delaware society. She is the chief advocate for this issue in our state and she goes above and beyond what most citizens could or would do. Below is the bill, and underneath that are other articles I’ve written about these insidious crimes against human rights.
The Season Of Myths 