IS HOUSTON A SEX TRAFFICKING MECCA?
From High School Honor Roll to Now Trafficked on Bissonnet -The Story of Angel How Angel Entered the Underworld of Human Sex Trafficking
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By Jamie Winston
o protect her identity and that of her family, we use the name Angel, her street name. Angel grew up in Katy, TX, where she regularly attended church, was an honor roll student and held a normal after school job. She lived in a nice middle-class neighborhood, had a good group of friends, and one day her life changed. Angel’s parents noticed she wasn’t hanging out with her regular friend group, didn’t talk to them as much, became withdrawn and moody, and didn’t seem interested in the things she used to enjoy her parents chalked up to teenage angst. What they would later find was that Angel was grooming
for sex trafficking. The new friends, the new boyfriend, her lack of interest in her “old life” were all subtle signs that their daughter was entering a very dark underworld that they never dreamed would ever reach their quiet suburban neighborhood. For Angel and many others like her, it all started with a friend from her church. This friend would introduce her to a whole new friend group and have her fall into a world that she never knew existed. Traffickers have learned that parents who take their children to church tend to be stricter when it comes to things like social media, drinking, staying out late,
September + October 2020
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