By Holly Austin Smith — From her column Speaking Out in the Washington Times
WASHINGTON, DC, 30 May 2012 – Ever since Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell signed into legislation the SB 259/HB1188 bill, I have received emails from advocates around the country asking how they might bring similar change to their own states. This bill, which was sponsored by Senator Adam Ebbin and Delegate Vivian E. Watts, will require the Board of Education and the Department of Social Services to collaborate and provide awareness and training materials for local school divisions on human trafficking, including strategies to prevent trafficking of children. As a survivor advocate for this bill, I’m proud that others want to join the movement.
On January 16th, 2012, I testified in Richmond, Virginia before the General Assembly Education Committee regarding SB259. As a survivor of child trafficking, I cared about this bill very much.
Initially, I was unnerved by the political setting. A panel of busy lawmakers pushed each impassioned, and sometimes angry, speaker past the crowd of observers anxiously awaiting their own turns to speak for or against some other bill. I nervously scratched and scribbled at my speech until I was finally called upon to speak. Although I was uneasy, I was also adamant about explaining why a law like this is imperative in the fight to protect our children from predatory child traffickers.
Read the article on the Washington Times website
