While the Halton District School Board (HDSB) is working toward implementing an anti-sex trafficking protocol across all schools as part of starting the new school year, experts highlight the importance of introducing mandatory parent council training to meet long-term success.
Lauding Canada's first-of-its-kind sex trafficking prevention initiative, they emphasize parent education is critical because sometimes it might even take 18 months for parents to understand that their children are trafficked.
HDSB drafted this protocol to meet the provincial government's directive for provincially-funded school boards to develop regionally tailored anti-sex trafficking guidelines, effective Jan. 2022.
Kelly Tallon Franklin, noted expert and advocate ally with sex trafficking survivor leaders, their organizations and agencies across Canada, congratulated the Ministry of Education and its Anti-Human Trafficking Working Group for their hard work, observing that "it's a good start but not enough."
A survivor herself, Franklin has worked with more than 527 young survivors of sex trafficking and their families in Ontario. She suggests that the school boards introduce mandatory training of parent councils to raise awareness of parent guardians across the province to complement and strengthen the new protocol.
Last summer, the ministry released this policy framework for Ontario schools to protect children from sexual exploitation. The ministry's working group of "persons with lived experience of being trafficked, frontline community-based organizations that support survivors, Indigenous communities and organizations, representatives from Black and racialized communities, newcomers and students" applied its insight to build the policy framework.
The government is also investing $2.4 million to ensure the implementation of the protocol. It can be noted here that “Ontario is a hub for human trafficking, with the most police-reported incidents of human trafficking in the country occurring within the province in 2019, accounting for approximately 55 per cent of all police-reported incidents of human trafficking nationally.”
Our local school board, HDSB, has worked with Halton Catholic District School Board and its community partners to develop a local approach to the protocol. Its key focus areas are:
- Safe Strategies to raise awareness and prevent sex trafficking
- Response and Reporting Procedures
- Annual Training and Awareness for Staff to teach and intervene
The school board has also connected with the 2S- LGBTQIA community for its input. "HDSB has met all current guidelines and timelines set out by the Policy Memorandum 166 (that outlines the policy framework for Anti-Sex Trafficking Protocols)," Marnie Denton, Manager, Communication & Engagement Services, HDSB, said to Oakville News.
"Some initial awareness training took place this year. It will be followed up with a professional learning day to ensure comprehensive training and implementation across all schools", Denton added.
In the meantime, parents can participate in or even organize community events such as the one organized by North Oakville Ward 7 on human trafficking and sexual exploitation on April 20, 2022. Ron Chhinzer, a police officer for 15 years and a board member of the Residents’ Association stated that Franklin will attend this event ‘to educate and empower our community with the information to prevent this from happening to our children.”