East Idaho organization works to rescue children from sex trafficking
This story is about east Idaho but it is typical of
virtually every region in the USA
By Jenni Whiteley For the Journal
In Southeast Idaho, the horrors of child sex trafficking seem more like a subject for far-away developing nations. But Matthew Smith, the executive director of Operation Shield, an Idaho Falls-based non-profit organization fighting to prevent, rescue and treat victims, says,
“It’s happening right here.”
Smith, Idaho Falls Police Chief Bryce Johnson and a local survivor will all be available Wednesday during a Community Round Table at Hillcrest High School’s Performing Arts Center in Idaho Falls at 7 p.m. to answer questions about sex trafficking.
Smith said that on Oct. 26 of last year alone he found 28 ads in Southeast Idaho for sex trafficking on places such as Craigslist. He also stated that in 2017, 22 cases of sex trafficking were identified in Southeast Idaho news stories where the child was recovered and prosecution procedures had begun.
“The rule of thumb that we go by is that for every one recovered, there are at least five more in need of recovery,” he said.
Smith also said that a lot of child pornography is produced in Southeast Idaho.
“There’s a whole dark web that has a black economy that sells and trades this garbage,” he said. “There’s a lot of money involved in it. This isn’t pornography of a child in the bathtub either. This is horrific stuff.”
In 2010, Smith, Doug Andrus, Mike Adams, and Nick Thompson started the Prosperity Project to bring medical aid to victims of the earthquake in Haiti. The Prosperity Project leaders were approached by Operation Underground Railroad and asked to also help provide therapy to rescued sex trafficking children in orphanages. They found that many orphaned children or families who could no longer afford to provide for their children were falling prey to sex traffickers with promises of food, shelter and safety.
Smith said that right now the Prosperity Project is working with a Haitian orphanage that houses 123 children. The orphanage had originally identified eight sex trafficking victims, but when Smith’s team tested the others, they found the total number was closer to 60.
That's pretty close to 50%. Good grief!
Operation Shield was started in 2013, which was a time when Smith said, “We started seeing the signs of sex trafficking here in Eastern Idaho and decided we were not going to ignore our own backyard.”
So far, Operation Shield has only been able to help fully rescue six victims, though the need is much greater.
“A big problem is that very few people know we exist,” Smith said. “Another reason is that these girls do not seek out help on their own. We normally only get our referrals from other survivors with whom I interact. Traffickers isolate and teach them not to trust normal people and then you’ve got the ‘Johns’ [people who pay for their services] who appear as normal people, yet are abusing them right and left so they don’t know who to trust.”
The average life expectancy, which is backed up with evidence,
is only seven years from the point of entry.
They are usually killed by being beaten to death or shot.”
Smith continued, “The tragedy is that very few of these victims actually escape, even here in Idaho. The girls that I network with are saying that only about 2 percent of the girls who are in the business live through it. The average life expectancy, which is backed up with evidence, is only seven years from the point of entry. They are usually killed by being beaten to death or shot.”
Smith said that Southeast Idaho doesn’t yet have adequate training and resources to identify, rescue and rehabilitate this population of victims, which is Operation Shield’s focus right now.
Besides not knowing who to trust, Smith says that victims do not seek help for fear of harm to themselves or their families by their pimps. Those at Operation Shield are training personnel such as police officers and emergency room workers to recognize victims and ask the right questions at “points of contact” to help them escape.
In October, more than 70 police officers from Eastern Idaho and Wyoming received training from those at Operation Shield at a conference in Idaho Falls. The organization is also informing therapists about the trauma and needs of sex trafficking victims.
“Many therapists hold the belief that these victims are just typical PTSD clients,” Smith said. “But Complex PTSD is PTSD on steroids due to someone continually being traumatized from an environment that they don’t feel they can escape from. … You have to understand where they are coming from and build a relationship or they will close down.”
Though the trauma is deep, Smith said that recovery and hope is possible for these victims. He said that the therapy that Bob Stahn, the clinical director for Operation Shield and owner of Well Spring Counseling, uses is creating miracles in the lives of these victims. Though the trauma is always there, survivors have been able to learn to cope and live healthy lifestyles to rebuild their lives.
Most child victims in the U.S. aged 11-16 fall prey to sex traffickers
not by being kidnapped, but through social media sites
such as Facebook, SnapChat or chat rooms
Smith said that victims of sex trafficking do not fit a stereotype.
“We’d like to believe that it’s poor kids from the bad part of town or an issue of poor parenting, but that’s not how the facts bear out,” he said. “I have seen victims where the mother is a school teacher and the dad is in law enforcement.”
Smith also said that most child victims in the U.S. aged 11-16 fall prey to sex traffickers not by being kidnapped, but through social media sites such as Facebook, SnapChat or chat rooms.
Children in these developmental stages are trying to gain their independence and sometimes rebel against authority figures. Predators are looking for this vulnerability and create false characters. They pose as someone who loves these children more than their parents and groom the children away from their support systems.
The predator begins an online romantic relationship with the child, which often includes sending inappropriate pictures and promises of marriage if the child will run away. Once the child leaves, the predator tells the child that they need money to stay together and the child is then prostituted.
Before starting Operation Shield, Smith worked with hundreds of therapists as a program developer in the children’s mental health industry for 25 years. He earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology and a graduate certificate in substance abuse counseling.
Through his work, Smith has seen that one of the biggest indicators that a child might be getting involved with a predator is a dramatic, sudden change in the child’s behavior.
The best way parents can help prevent their children from being victimized is to build relationships of trust and keep communication lines open.
“I’m not a therapist,” Smith said, “but this is what we have learned. … They will stop trusting the people closest to them, they will alienate themselves from their support group. You re-establish that first and then, you start asking gently about the behavior changes you are noticing. … It’s not just girls either. It’s boys as well who fall victim.”
Though Operation Shield’s main focus is child sex trafficking, they will help adults who contact them as well. “We know of ways to leave that life without any trace and can give you a good opportunity for a new start,” Smith said.
Operation Shield can be reached at 208-534-8303 and msgi@live.com. The address is 5130 Treyden Dr., Idaho Falls, ID 83406
Omaha prosecutor says he'll appeal sex abuse sentence
by The Associated Press
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Douglas County prosecutor Don Kleine says he plans to appeal the sentence of retired Omaha fire captain found guilty earlier this year of sexually assaulting three young girls, saying he thinks the man got off too easy.
Lee Dunbar was sentenced Friday to 15-16 years on each of all five counts of first-degree child sexual assault for assaults on girls all younger than 12. The victims included two foster children of Dunbar's. The judge ordered the sentences served at the same time.
The Omaha World-Herald reports that Kleine said Friday that by ordering the sentences served concurrently, the judge effectively wiped out four of the convictions.
Precisely! Concurrent sentences are a gift to pedophiles and a re-victimization of the children. It also puts more children at risk. Go for it Mr. Kleine!
Dunbar had faced up to life in prison.
Eddie Fischer's sex abuse at Charleston's Porter-Gaud school subject of new documentary
Please note: This is not The Eddie Fisher, the 1950s pop singer
By Adam Parker aparker@postandcourier.com
The Terrace Charleston Film Festival, which runs March 15-18, includes a documentary film that dares to scrutinize one of Charleston’s most tender wounds, a collective injury inflicted by a sexual predator.
“What Haunts Us,” a new film by Porter-Gaud alumna Paige Goldberg Tolmach, strives to come to terms with the damage caused by Eddie Fischer, who taught at Porter-Gaud from 1972 to 1982, and subsequently at College Preparatory School and James Island High School. He was discovered to have abused 20 boys at Porter-Gaud, and as many as 50 total.
The documentary concentrates on the Porter-Gaud Class of 1979, which has lost six people to suicide in the years since the scandal became public. Among the questions raised by the movie: How was it possible for so many people — teachers, administrators, students and parents — to remain ignorant of, or silent about, Fischer’s behavior?
If You Go
WHAT: Terrace Charleston Film Festival
WHEN: March 15-18
WHERE: Terrace Theater, 1956D Maybank Highway, James Island
COST: $11
MORE INFO: http://terracetheater.com/. Screening of "What Haunts Us" are scheduled for 7 p.m. March 17 and 2:30 p.m. March 18. Tickets for "What Haunts Us" are $15 each. A panel discussion will follow the first showing.
Fischer was arrested in 1997 largely as a result of persistent efforts by one of his victims, Guerry Glover, whose father Harry Glover filed a civil suit against Porter-Gaud the following year. In April 1999, Fischer was sentenced to 20 years in prison. (Guerry Glover is featured prominently in the movie.)
In October 2000, a jury found that two school officials, Principal James Bishop “Skip” Alexander and Headmaster Berkeley Grimball were negligent for failing to stop abuse they knew about. The trials made national news. A series of legal settlements ensued. The school and its affiliate, The Episcopal Church, paid out millions of dollars to numerous victims and their families.
In 2002, Fischer died while serving time. Alexander killed himself just before the trial started. Grimball remained in his position until 1988 and died in 1999.
Now the scandal will receive renewed attention in the city where it all unfolded, at an independent movie theater just a couple of miles away from the prestigious private school.
'In his sunshine'
Tolmach said she was compelled to make the movie, to confront all she didn’t know about those terrible years, after her child was born and after learning in late 2011 about another sexual predator, Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
“What Haunts Us,” her first movie, was difficult to make, she said. It led to all sorts of unsettling discoveries, self-recrimination and distress, admiration for those who have managed to survive the abuse and, ultimately, a degree of healing.
“It was heartbreaking, totally heartbreaking,” she said. “I didn’t know what I was getting into. It broke my heart for the little girl I was then, the friends around me and as a mother now. We never learned anything (about the case) because we never talked about it. That wasn’t OK. I had to do something about it. In order to protect my son in the now I had to go back to the then.”
At Porter-Gaud, Fischer was her teacher.
Tolmach started at the school as a fourth-grader in 1977 and graduated in 1985. She remembers hearing a rumor or two, and knowing about the boys who went to Fischer’s home.
“We knew he had favorites,” she said. “We knew he hung out with a flock of boys in the summer. All we knew as children was it was funny. ... They wanted to be in his sunshine. We thought it was cool to be one of Eddie Fischer’s boys. We just didn’t realize how deep it was.”
Then, suddenly, Fischer vanished. “His departure was unexplained,” she said. “We came back from summer vacation and he was gone.” He hadn’t gone far. With recommendations in hand from his Porter-Gaud supervisors, Fischer landed a position first at College Prep, then at James Island High.
Shame and confusion
Carlos Salinas was among the many Porter-Gaud boys molested by Fischer. “For me the big relief came ... when Guerry blows the lid off and I talk to him that night when the article comes out,” Salinas said. He told Glover he was not alone and offered to help with the campaign to bring Fischer to justice. “It was a major liberation. That’s what really sets me free. It’s no longer something I hide, this is something I share. I resolved to talk freely about my experience.”
It also helped Salinas to go through a ritual soul-cleaning ceremony in the Colombian Amazon, where he had connections and was working to protect indigenous tribes. “I literally vomited the evil out of myself," he said.
In hindsight, he could see the patterns. At the time, people could tell something was wrong, but couldn’t discern the nature or extent of the problem, he said. “When someone is always there, it’s hard to recognize that he shouldn’t be there.”
Salinas transferred to Porter-Gaud from a Catholic school when he was entering seventh grade, and it was a big culture shock and difficult adjustment, he said. “Fischer was one of the first to reach out to me,” Salinas recalled. “He must have realized I was a duck out of water.”
He paid Salinas a lot of attention. He spoke a little Spanish. He looked out for the new middle-schooler. “He was seen as kind of a cool guy, so I certainly did not shy away from that attention,” Salinas said. Besides, he was used to interacting with adults, so none of this seemed terribly odd. A few years later, though, it did get odd.
Salinas was in 10th grade and could drive. He was invited to Fischer’s beach house one day and figured, why not? He dismissed his mother’s observation that visiting a teacher at his home was, well, weird. But teachers were trustworthy, right? “I know what I’m doing,” he told his mother.
Fischer confided to Salinas that he was a gigolo with a huge ring of women ready to pay for sex with young men. To the student, this was a shared secret. Salinas declined to participate in the sex ring, but was embarrassed because he felt he had betrayed his teacher’s confidence, he said.
He was trapped emotionally, he was vulnerable, confused, and he fell victim to Fischer’s sexual advances. “I’d always felt bad,” he said. “I know the rational argument (that children are not at fault), but that doesn’t take away the pain and disappointment.”
Salinas said he wishes he had spoken up sooner “because of all the kids who came after.” But shame and confusion have a paralyzing effect. “That’s the evil mastery at work,” he said.
A ripple effect
Porter-Gaud Head of School DuBose Egleston said the new documentary has “provoked a very good conversation.” Egleston said he has participated in many discussions about preventing sexual assault and helped to implement robust new policies and procedures that better safeguard students. He also has spoken with victims and learned a lot, he said.
The trauma of sexual abuse affects generations, Egleston said. “There’s a ripple effect. Some have moved on, others are struggling.” Some have remained part of the Porter-Gaud community, others are reaching out now. “It’s been great to be able to talk to some of the victims and hear their story and be able to apologize as much as possible to them, and tell them what we do now,” he said.
The school sent a note to alumni dated March 1 notifying them about the screening of Tolmach’s movie. “We deeply regret this painful part of our past and the poor manner in which the school treated the victims,” Egleston wrote. “To those victims and their families, we offer our sincerest and most heartfelt apology, knowing full well that no apology will ever return to them what was so horribly taken away.”
Egleston and several others from the school will attend the screening of “What Haunts Us” and join the conversation afterward. Tolmach said it’s important to know the full story to “help us protect our children in the future.” Some current Porter-Gaud parents don’t know about the Fischer scandal, she noted.
“I feel like, as parents, we don’t want to believe this can be true, so we tend to look the other way. It’s not because we are bad people. We walk away from it, and that leaves a lot on the table. We can’t do that.”
There is too much to lose. “Two victims died, basically by suicide, while I was making the film,” Tolmach said. “The ripple effects don’t end.”
Much can be done, from introducing formal safety practices to telling children how to recognize inappropriate behavior. “You have to educate people,” Tolmach said. “We all play role when bad things happen. If we have a hand in the badness we certainly could have a hand in the goodness.”
Former speedskater, child sex abuse victim Bridie Farrell launches nonprofit group to aid survivors
Former speedskater Bridie Farrell created a nonprofit group, NY Loves Kids, to help survivors and "to talk to people who have been abused in the communities.” (RICHARD DREW/AP)
BY KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
ALBANY — Former speedskater and child sexual assault victim Bridie Farrell has created a nonprofit group to help fellow survivors and push for passage of the Child Victims Act.
The group, NY Loves Kids, has received funding from another survivor who received a significant settlement with a prestigious upstate girls’ school.
“The organization seeks to get people to talk about the topic,” Farrell told the Daily News. “The state Capitol is where a lot of people focus on the law. But we seek to talk to people who have been abused in the communities.”
From there, part of the discussion is how people can pressure their state lawmakers into enacting the Child Victims Act, which would give victims of child sex abuse more time to bring criminal and civil cases as adults.
Good luck with that! You would have to put more money in the pockets of legislators than the Catholic Church does.
“It’s in the local communities where we’re going to see a difference,” said Farrell, who has lobbied for the measure at the state Capitol.
Her efforts with her new group are taking her across the state. NY Loves Kids held an event in Farmingdale on Long Island on Thursday night and had another scheduled in Buffalo Saturday.
NY Loves Kids received $25,000 from Kat Sullivan, who is using part of the settlement she received from the Emma Willard School in upstate Troy, where she was sexually abused by a teacher in the 1990s. Sullivan said as part of the settlement, she can’t publicly disclose how much she received.
But she said she plans to give away nearly the entire amount to non-profit groups like Farrell’s that deal with child sex abuse.
She said she also used part of the settlement on therapy. “I could have bought myself a Lexus or some diamond earrings,” Sullivan said. “Instead, I decided to move (from Orlando, Fla.) to New York City and become more focused on activism and help my fellow survivors.”
God bless you, Kat!
Sullivan said she so far has also given $25,000 to the Foundation for Survivors and $15,000 to SurvJustice.
Bridie Farrell says N.Y. law 'doesn't protect children'
Because she already settled, Sullivan would not benefit from the Child Victims Act and its proposed one-year window to revive old cases. But she said she is involved in the effort to get the bill passed to help other survivors who haven’t received any type of justice.
“The most catharsis I’ve found is trying to take what happened and improve things for other people,” Sullivan said.
Gov. Cuomo this year for the first time included the measure in his budget proposal, meaning it can be removed only if the Senate Republicans and Assembly Democrats refuse to negotiate a final deal that includes the measure and the governor acquiesces.
Cuomo’s proposal would allow survivors to bring civil cases up to 50 years from the attack and would eliminate the statute of limitations for any felony sexually related offense committed against someone under the age of 18.
Under current law, someone sexually abused as a child has until their 23rd birthday to bring a case.
Cuomo’s plan would also treat public and private institutions the same when it comes to child sex abuse and create the one-year window to revive old cases that is vehemently opposed by groups like the Catholic Church.
The Assembly passed different versions of the CVA several times over the past dozen years, including in 2017. But it’s never come up for a vote in the GOP-controlled Senate.
Apparently, Republicans like Catholic money more than NY children.
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