...or the other

After a long day of school you check your phone and decide to open social media. Immediately, you’re told that trafficking predators are waiting under your car to slash your achilles tendon or to call the police if you see a piece of paper on your windshield. Most of the information about sex trafficking spread on social media is false, but more and more people are being exposed to it and media. These posts, many of them TikTok videos, discuss so-called tactics traffickers use to abduct specifically women, as well as ways women can protect themselves from sex trafficking dangers. While most of the information within them is false, these videos prove that a discussion about sex trafficking is necessary, especially one within our own Sequoia community. “I would encourage any student interested in learning more about trauma and sexual assault to stop by the TRC and talk to one of our therapists anytime. We would also be interested in continuing to partner with students and staff on how to improve sexual assault and human trafficking education and support here at Sequoia,” Cusick said.

Another point Cusick addresses in relation to trafficking education is the myth that trafficking victims are abducted by strangers. According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline website, victims of trafficking are most likely to have some sort of relationship with the trafficker. They include employers or intimate partners as potential types of people that take advantage of their relationship to a victim to exploit them. (see relationships infographic) to blame an unknown, outside threat like the misleading videos would have us do. suffering mentally as a result.

“I hope fears around sex trafficking can open the door to very real conversations, real healing, and real change around sexual assault and trauma in our communities and not distract us into ‘othering’ this problem by blaming it on forces outside of our communities,” Cusick said.

Built-up fears and anxieties from living in a historically violent world has lead to misinformation around sex trafficking being circulated online, especially on social

“I see the need to build upon the work already being done by students and staff at Sequoia to increase education and awareness around exploitative and controlling relationships,” Cusick said.

He also emphasizes the necessity of recognizing sex trafficking as something that happens within victims’ own social circles. In doing so, Cusick urges us to reject the desire

BYALLISONWANG CopyEditor

“For being in the Bay Area and being in such a progressive place, it seems kind of silly that at all of Sequoia, out of all of the girls at Sequoia, there’s only four girls taking [Java] programming courses, that’s pretty sad to to think about,” Martha Leveque, Java Programming teacher, said.