A hundred students packed into the seminar room from Mrs. Wheeler, Mr. Nokes, Mrs. Lamb, and Mrs. Haney’s fourth period classes in complete silence for 45 minutes as they listened to a presentation about a sensitive topic that is a problem in the world.

That problem is sex trafficking and it affects approximately 4.5 million people worldwide according to the International Labour Organization.

Two EAST members, Junior Kylee Bell and Junior Bethanie Leadbetter, have been working on the project for almost a month. However, there have been some obstacles to overcome while they strive to reach their goal.

“It breaks my heart to know that there are people out there who feel helpless and no one wants to help them, but we are going to, even though we may have people tell us no because it is a sensitive subject. We are going to make it happen and there’s no stopping this project,” said Leadbetter.

Leadbetter and Bell started this project to help students recognize the signs of sex trafficking and know who to contact to get help for any student that is in trouble. The guest speakers, Stephanie Peeples and Lindsey Hodous gave some insight on recognizing the signs of a sex trafficking victim.

“You can just tell from a personal connection with someone if there is a problem and you can just see it in their eyes that something is wrong,” said Leadbetter.

[Name of guest speaker] asked the students in the crowd to not ignore calls for help, as students learned to be aware of their surroundings and the people in them.

”[I learned to] be more alert about this topic and be careful, and help others if they are going through problems” said sophomore Erandy Parra

The main reason that this project is being done is to raise awareness because people in Arkansas aren’t educated about this issue, but that is not the only reason, as people see trafficking lingo used in pop culture today.

“It really makes me mad when people walk around and they use joking terms like ‘oh there’s my pimp daddy’ or ‘he’s my daddy’, because it is not a joke. These words have meanings to them and they don’t need to be used loosely. They need to be used strictly because this is a serious issue and there are people losing their lives due to this,” said Leadbetter.  

The presentation covered how social media is used to ensnare victims and how the victims are treated. Often victims are coerced into the trade and are shut off from the outside world.

“It was good, because I never thought about [sex trafficking] that way and I never thought it was so serious, that it was happening here,” said Parra.

The presentation ended with an interesting image of 100 pennies that are all different colors and ages and conditions, but with it was a message that we are all the same, and even though we are different, we need to be nice each other. There was a round of applause for the presentation, and as the bell rang, 100 students went out into the world, armed with knowledge to help solve this problem.