Junior Pimps and Kidnapping
A colleague and friend of mine reports that her student, a 10th-grade girl, had been reported missing. When the girl finally turned up, it turned out that she had been coerced into running away from home and lured to a brothel, where she was exploited for prostitution for two weeks. How on earth did she end up there? Apparently the latest tactic by "pimps" in the city is to employ teenage apprentices who lure young women into the pimp's possession. This seemes to be what happened to this young lady. In this case, the young man was also a student at the school. During the ordeal, she called home and told her mother "I'm OK, and I'll be home soon." But it was presumed she was forced to say that. Though, it came out later, that after she had returned home, she ran away again, of her own volition. How much of this is her choices and how much is brainwashing or some other kind of coercion is still in question. Bizarre, and sad, situation.
A few years ago, the police in the city decided to crack down on known pimps in the city, rather than merely going after the women they had exploited. What a novel idea, huh? I'd like to see how this situation is handled legally. Whether charges will be placed against the boy. Whether the house of prostituition will be raided and the appropriate people arrested. This is a horrific situation. Yet I fear that, as many things in the school system, it may not be handled with the gravity it demands.
8:33:01 PM 
|
|
