Hays Post
The creepy vehicle and an abduction.
It's a false narrative that people have about sex trafficking in Kansas, especially when it deals with children. It's what many people think of when they hear the words "human trafficking."
"And that's not how it works," said Russ Tuttle, president and founder of the Stop Trafficking Project during an interview with Gary Shorman for the Forward Ever Podcast.
Tuttle is in Ellis County this week speaking about the realities of human trafficking on a global scale and funneling it down to the specific issues of minor sex trafficking in Kansas, especially in rural areas.
Tuttle is making age-appropriate presentations for all Ellis County students during school hours. On Sunday, he will give a speech for adults at Fort Hays State University's Beach Schmidt Performing Arts Center. Dallas Haselhorst, owner of Treetop Cyber Security in Hays, will kick off the event at 6:30 p.m. Tuttle will speak after.
"This is about life online and the seduction of our kids," Tuttle said.
"There's not a zip code anywhere in the state of Kansas where we do not have kids whose vulnerabilities are being exploited online," he said. "In the worst-case scenarios, domestic minor sex trafficking has become a part of their unfortunate narrative," even in ultra-rural areas.
Retired Hays USD 489 school nurse Mary Ann Shorman said his presentation is "fabulous." Shorman is a member of Women Who Lead, formerly known as the Wonder Women League. The group, which is sponsoring Tuttle's visit, has been working to get Tuttle back into the community since before the pandemic.
She heard Tuttle speak five years ago at a school nurse health conference in Wichita.
"I was shocked," Mary Ann Shorman said. "You think of this as happening in other countries, in big cities. It was very scary for me, thinking of my grandkids and the kids I know."
Tuttle said his group's vision is simplistic: end domestic minor sex trafficking before it starts by disrupting the exploitation of vulnerability.
Tuttle said some students who've heard his previous presentations have disclosed their own exploitation afterward.
"You don't have to live close to I-70 or be in the 'right' zip code. The internet freeway is everywhere," he said.
Tuttle said the Stop Trafficking Project is finding some patterns across the country.
"We're finding patterns where child-on-child sex crimes are increasing," Tuttle said. "We're finding that child sexual abuse materials are increasing because kids are typically self-generating these pictures now; therefore, we're finding the crime of sextortion increasing where adults or sometimes other students are using a kid's pictures against them.
Those three things, he said, are leading to the toxic environment of "opening the door to be led into domestic minor sex trafficking."
There's also an element of trafficking happening within families.
"What's happening oftentimes is these kids are being exploited by people that they know and, sometimes, that they trust," Tuttle said.
Students are often introduced by a friend to people acting as someone else online.
"I hear it all the time (from students about their online acquaintances), 'They're so nice,'" Tuttle said.
Whether Tuttle is addressing students or adults, his message is the same: be alert.
He's created a method called BeAlert with presentations designed to educate and empower students and guide adults from awareness to action.
"We're not mad at the kids. We're not against life online. We're not against technology," Tuttle said.
"But because it's such an important part of their life, we appeal to the 'hero' in kids and help them have a better understanding and be empowered to say, 'I don't want to fall for these traps online.'"
Becky Kiser, Hays Post reporter, contributed to this story.