On Valentine’s Day, an Amber Alert was declared for a missing 12-year-old girl from Evergreen. Social media and news sites immediately erupted with announcements, advising people to keep on the lookout for the girl and the 28-year-old California man who had taken her.
The response was swift, decisive and ultimately effective. Jasmine Walker, who had met the man via Facebook, was found in Las Vegas later that day and two adult males were taken into custody. One man was charged with felony custodial interference and the other with felony accountability to custodial interference.
Walker’s return home was a success story that illustrated how quickly authorities and a concerned community can mobilize to save a vulnerable child. Yet it was a tale of reaction, which many child protection advocates and law authorities say is too often the case.
The story they would like to tell is one in which an all-encompassing movement to protect children spreads across the state, where Montana proves it can prevent times of crisis just as well as it can react to them, and help victims deal with the aftermath and prosecute the perpetrators if an incident does occur.
To reach its potential, this multi-faceted effort requires degrees of cooperation from all levels of society, bringing together education, enforcement and the many elements in between. It involves activists, law officials, parents, teachers and anybody else who feels they have a stake in protecting children. As they say, it takes a village.
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In a warm room in Kalispell, safe from the cold outside world where heavy snow blanketed the streets, two teenage girls recently told their stories of exploitation. As they described the gritty details of lost innocence, they sounded less like scared teenagers and more like determined advocates with lessons to share. They said they have little sisters who could learn from them.
The 17-year-old girl talked about parties where older men supply young girls with drugs and alcohol and later have their way with the teenagers, who are often blacked out. The 15-year-old girl nodded in acknowledgement. The man throwing the party had reached out to her one day on Facebook. She’s been to the same parties.
But the 17-year-old also had a more triumphant tale involving a sharp-eyed decision. Upon receiving an email to her cell phone about a potential modeling job with a professional photographer, she immediately recognized the fraudulent scheme. She had heard about this fake photographer who, claiming to be a female though really a male, had solicited photos of other young girls in the valley. The 15-year-old personally knows of “six or seven” girls who have sent nude or revealing photos, for “measurements.”
“We’re talking about a guy who preys on younger girls,” the 15-year-old said. “We’re talking about a predator.”
The 17-year-old is worried about her sister.
“My little sister has Facebook and I don’t know what her (privacy) settings are,” she said.
It’s not easy for teenage girls to divulge these types of personal stories, but the two teenagers say people in Montana need to hear them so other incidents of exploitation might be prevented.
“People are so naïve about this,” the 15-year-old said. “They think because they live in Montana, this doesn’t happen. But it does.”
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Here in Montana, human trafficking and child prostitution aren’t part of the daily lexicon. In the minds of many residents, those are terms reserved for problems in distant places like Thailand and India, not Columbia Falls and Kalispell.
But as technology alters the landscape of child exploitation, opening up anonymous avenues of access to vulnerable kids, there is a growing number of advocates and authorities wishing to introduce those terms into Montana’s public discussion. Child pornography, prostitution and online enticement, they remind, are all happening in Big Sky country.
The Kalispell chapter of Soroptimist International is kicking off a statewide campaign to raise awareness of minor domestic sex trafficking on Feb. 23-24 at Flathead Valley Community College, showing a documentary called “Sex + Money: A National Search for Human Worth.”
Also, in partnership with the Flathead Abolitionist Movement, the Kalispell Soroptimists have commissioned Shared Hope International to bring its nationally recognized training seminar “Do You Know Lacy?” to FVCC on April 26. The training course aims to increase knowledge about domestic minor sex trafficking and teach strategies to prevent, combat and handle cases of the crime in Montana.
“This training is so important because sex trafficking is happening all over the United States, and it does happen in our valley and across Montana, too,” Columbia Falls Police Detective Steve Hughes said in a release promoting the April seminar. “Just because our state is comprised of rural communities doesn’t mean we’re excluded.”
“If anything,” he added, “we’re more on the front line now because the upcoming generation is all about technology. Online, you can buy a car … you can buy a kid.”
Diane Yarus, an organizer of the FVCC events and member of the Kalispell Soroptimists, would like to see a shift in long-observed social paradigms, where trafficking and child exploitation as a whole are acknowledged as real concerns throughout the United States, even in rural Montana.
“There are some societal mentalities that need to change,” Yarus said last week. “People are still looking at it as underage prostitution, rather than ‘prostituted.’”
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Since 2007, Montana has had an Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that has put a number of child predators behind bars. Other efforts, such as conferences, educational outreach seminars and advocacy programs, have signaled a desire in Montana to address the complexities of modern child predation and the dangers of Internet socializing.
Just last week, Attorney General Steve Bullock announced the creation of the Children’s Justice Center, “a collaborative initiative to better protect Montana children and prosecute child predators,” according to a release from Bullock’s office.
The center brings six state Department of Justice programs under one umbrella, along with two statewide partnerships, to focus resources and provide better training and coordination in the fight against child abuse and sexual assault. Though literature promoting the center doesn’t specifically use the word “trafficking,” its messages echo those of Yarus and her colleagues.
“The center was born out of two goals,” Bullock said. “We wanted to make sure that anyone who hurts a child is investigated, arrested, prosecuted and convicted. And we wanted to do more to help Montana’s youngest victims.”
But there are obstacles to justice. Perpetrators aren’t always easy to catch and kids often don’t speak with adults about the incidents. Also, Yarus and her colleagues believe Montana’s child predator and prostitution laws don’t have enough teeth. She said Montana received an “F” from Shared Hope International in its grading of child sex trafficking laws, though she praised Bullock’s recent efforts.
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Windie Fischer, who was a victim of exploitation as a child, is dedicated to helping young girls who have endured similar experiences or are at risk. |
“It’s nice to see the attorney general doing that, but we might need to see legislative action and stiffer laws,” Yarus said.
Flathead County Sheriff’s Detective Sergeant Jeanne Parker, an investigator with the Montana Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, said she hasn’t seen many cases classified as trafficking, though she has seen numerous online enticement cases. The Internet, she said, presents a “whole new bucket of worms” in combating child exploitation.
In 2011, Parker said the ICAC investigated more than 30 cases in the Flathead alone, including production, distribution and possession of child pornography and online enticement. That number was up from previous years, she said, while adding that people viewing child pornography are “most likely hands-on offenders” as well. With the growing caseload, Parker wishes there were more resources available.
“I personally think we need investigators specifically assigned in the Flathead to proactively work these cases,” she said. “We reactively work the cases when they come up. We just don’t have the manpower to proactively work these cases right now.”
Parker said attempts to spread awareness of child exploitation in the Flathead are often greeted lukewarmly at best and with resistance at worst. Over the last two years during April, which is child abuse awareness month, Parker said child safety fairs were held at the Flathead County Fairgrounds to address Internet dangers. She said they were sparsely attended. Organizers will likely try a different approach this year.
“We don’t see a lot of parental involvement and community involvement,” Parker said. “People don’t like to hear about it.”
There are various organizations and resources in the Flathead dedicated to combating and spreading awareness about child abuse and sexual exploitation. Their efforts are helping to penetrate some of those pockets of resistance, though clearly Parker and others want to see more progress.
Among the resources is the Children’s Advocacy Center, a division of the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office. The center is a multi-disciplinary team headed by Brett Kelso in which various agencies partner to “provide comprehensive services to victims of child abuse.” Children receive forensic interviews and medical exams in an unintimidating environment.
Yarus and fellow activist Sue Rolfing are encouraged by the Flathead Coalition Against Human Trafficking, a group that brings together a wide variety of disciplines to address exploitation and trafficking concerns, including law enforcement and defense attorneys. The Violence Free Crisis Line and Flathead Youth Home are among the other important resources, they said.
The resources are building. Now the people behind those resources hope public perception and awareness are changing as well.
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Windie Fischer, a gutsy activist and youth pastor, meets regularly with the 15-year-old and 17-year-old girls who told their stories of exploitation, along with other victims and at-risk teenage girls. Fischer has proven she’s unafraid of walking into precarious situations, as she and her husband did at a recent party where she suspected adults were taking advantage of children.
Fischer, 43, was a victim of exploitation as a kid, meaning today she is known as a “survivor.” By meeting with her group of teenage girls, she is hoping to develop other strong-willed survivors who may someday be able to teach their own lessons. And, best of all, maybe Fischer can get to some of those at-risk girls before they fall victim.
“I’m a safe place they can come to,” she said. “Since I’ve put myself out there, it’s been a constant flow of people – parents, kids – coming to me.”
Through her work, Fischer has seen exploitation in varying degrees throughout the Flathead and shares her findings with agencies and law enforcement. She intends to open some eyes.
“People need to know this is going on here,” Fischer said. “It’s happening in Montana. It’s happening here.”