LIBERTY HILL, Texas — The pressures of technology and its effects on students weighs heavy on the minds and hearts of Michelle Wright and Lindsay Regehr, two school counselors at Santa Rita Middle School.
“A lot of what we deal with involves social media and the drama that comes with that as well,” Regehr said.
While both have done classroom lessons about online safety, they wanted to do it more consistently considering how traffickers can use social media to recruit victims.
“We want to belong and be accepted by other people, and so they believe that,” Wright said. “It does happen here in our community and the increase of this, it’s exploding.”
Now, Wright and Regehr are holding meetings with a group of student ambassadors to learn about how to stay safe online. It is all part of an organization called Project Protect Our Children, which is part of Youth Action Board. Liberty Hill ISD is one of the first districts in Central Texas to start it.
KellyAnn Yoder is an eighth grade at Santa Rita Middle.
“I didn’t know much about labor trafficking,” Yoder said. “We’ve learned what force, fraud and coercion are, which can affect how consent works.”
Her classmate, Kinley Cearley, recognizes the benefits of education.
“Everyone should learn this because anyone can be trafficked anywhere,” Cearley said.
It is having trusted students be the eyes and ears of their school and giving them the tools to take on the world.
“It’s not an easy topic to be a part of and they’re embracing it and taking it in,” Right said.
These efforts are also associated with Not on Our Watch, which helps raise awareness for online abuse and exploitation. Liberty Hill Mayor Crystal Mancilla did a proclamation for the initiative at a city council meeting.