Mundelein High School participates in pilot program to prevent human trafficking

A group of Mundelein High School students is participating in a nationwide pilot program to prevent human trafficking, said to be a first in Illinois.

Most Wednesdays for an hour after school and for no extra credit, 10 to 15 students have been meeting as part of TraffickSTOP (Signs to Observe and Prevent), created by the National White Collar Crime Center.

The voluntary extracurricular activity is designed to equip students with knowledge and resources to recognize and prevent human trafficking. Participants also learn about issues and discuss ways to engage the school and local partners, according to MHS.

According to the white collar crime center (NW3C), human trafficking occurs in all geographical areas and populations and, depending on the community, there may be more sex trafficking than the public is aware.

Those familiar with the issues say social media platforms increasingly are being used to recruit, groom and advertise victims.

"Kids are getting phones earlier and earlier and unfortunately, we don't know what they're doing on those phones," said Shea Needham, coordinator of the Lake County Human Trafficking Task Force.

The task force was created in early 2022 as a collaboration between the Lake County State's Attorney's office, law enforcement agencies, and victim service providers. It partners with the Lake County Coalition Against Human Trafficking to connect investigators, prosecutors, victim service providers, and the community to end trafficking in Lake County.

"We bring a lot of outside resources to combat human trafficking in ways it wasn't before, like school programming," Needham said.

NW3C trains school resource officers and others to guide students through discussion and activities with support from the school and community. At MHS, the program addresses sex and labor trafficking, the two primary types of human trafficking.

It's facilitated by Security Director Fred Kliora and School Resource Officer J.T. Schuldt of the Mundelein Police Department. Students learn about the scope of the problem, its effects, risk factors, prevention tactics and more.

"It could be happening in Waukegan. It could be happening in Lake Forest," Kliora said. "The great thing about this pilot program is that it empowers the students to be self-reliant and strengthen their ability to fight back against this crime."

The first meeting at MHS was Feb. 15 and will continue until the end of the school year. The last part of the program is an awareness week organized by students for students to share what they've learned.

The program has been implemented in four schools throughout the U.S. and materials are planned to be released for national use next year, according to Laura Cook, NW3C program manager.