Human Trafficking is often called modern day slavery, and for good reason. Over twenty-seven million people around the world have fallen victim to the horrors of this crime. From foreign countries to our neighboring town of Quincy, human trafficking continues to grow and become a cruel reality for too many. This crime exploits people often for sex or forced labor. Human trafficking most commonly effects women and children, but men are no exception, especially in the sense of forced labor. To put this crime into perspective, the average age a teen enters the sex trade in the U.S. is 12 to 14-year-old. This is the age of a  young girl in the 6^th, 7^th, or 8^th grade. California is home to three of what the FBI calls the 13 highest child sex trafficking areas on the nation: Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego. Human trafficking is a crime that exploits humans around the world, and sadly the US in no exception.

This past week, NDA’s TASC club was in charge of 2015’s awareness week. This year’s topic was human trafficking. The idea is that together we can make a change in the course of ending human trafficking, and the first step is to educate ourselves on the problem. Ignorance is one of the biggest contributors to the growing rates in the awful crime. TASCs awareness week started off with posters and tables tents during lunch to introduce the topic. Tuesday consisted of a showing of the movie “In Plain Sight” held in 226, at 2:30. Wednesday there was a guest speaker, Sister Peggy Cummins, a SNDdN. She shared first hand experience with victims of trafficking. Thursday students learned how they can play a role in stopping modern day slavery with a Technology and Fair Trade, same time and place! TASC closed its awareness week with a dress down day to support the cause.Together we can help educate each other and take the first steps in bringing an end to human trafficking.