Project Citizen: Human Trafficking

by Megan Wood, Anna Shirley, and Ethan Fisher

Every senior at MHS has to do Project Citizen, as a part of their government class in order to graduate. For the past 3 months, students have been interviewing, gathering information, and spending lots of stressful nights on it.

With different group members who have lots of different schedules, it’s hard to get everything done.

“[the hardest part of project citizen] trying to get it done as a group. We all have such different and crazy schedules,” Senior Sara Thurgood said.

When it comes to picking your topic for Project Citizen, pick something you believe will make a difference.

“You need to pick something you’re passionate about, that you can really get behind. Something that will really impact the community,” Senior Katie Gulley said.

Katie Gulley, Sara Thurgood, Olivia Hirrlinger, Elena Badillo, and Brooklyn Niederer chose Human Trafficking as their Project Citizen topic.

“I think because we picked such a sensitive topic, we could actually make a difference and that’s super important.” Gulley said.

Senator Pro Temp Brent Hill, official legislature of Idaho, attended their presentation.

“I thought it was a great presentation. Human trafficking is a difficult subject, I was surprised when they contacted me that they were choosing such a tough area to get into. I really like the approach they took about using education. We’ve got the laws there, we’ve got the penalties there, but to talk about education and trying to prevent it, I think that’s where the secret really is,” Senator Brent Hill said.

Implementing the warning signs into the health program was one of their solutions to try and prevent sex trafficking.

“I think it would be real good thing to do statewide through the education system. I suggested to them that if they’re serious about it, they should try it on a test basis on a couple of school districts. Because then we could see if it works and if it’s successful and it really could work into the health curriculum and so forth without disrupting stuff,” Hill said.

Working together as a community to protect our children, neighbors and friends is something that could help bring our town closer together.

“We need to alert the potential victims, which is usually the younger ones, but the parents have got to be aware of this too and looking for warning signs. The way some of these kids are lured into things, sometimes you have some time to react – if you know what to watch for. It’s a community thing. It’s not just the kids, it’s not just the parents, but the whole community. That’s what I like about the approach.