BEMIDJI -- A room dominated by women faced a panel of women addressing a topic that primarily affects the female population -- sex trafficking in Bemidji.
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Representatives from the Minnesota Department of Health, Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the Support Within Reach and Moving Upstream groups in Bemidji met Thursday at the Northwest Minnesota Foundation to collaborate on ways to address the complex issue.
Patty Wetterling, program director for the Sexual Violence Prevention Program with the Minnesota Department of Health, began discussion of the touchy topic.
“After Jacob’s kidnapping I really realized quickly that we were tapping into this river of sexual victimization,” Wetterling said.
Patty’s son, Jacob Wetterling, 11, was abducted on Oct. 22, 1989 in St. Joseph, Minn. Since that time, Wetterling has looked into what may have happened to her son. One possibility is prostitution.
“I didn’t even want to think about that,” Wetterling said. “When you’re child is missing...if your child, you know is being trafficked, you don’t know where they are. You don’t know what’s happening and your mind can go crazy with all of that.”
At the time of Jacob’s disappearance, the FBI’s bank robbery division was in charge of the investigation because there was no training on abduction, Wetterling said. In 2003, the FBI created the Innocence Lost program to help end child prostitution. The program has helped rescue 2,700 children and incarcerate more than 1,300 pimps. There are 39 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse in the United States, officials said.
‘Happens everywhere’ BSU student Monica Adebayo spoke out about her experience with sexual abuse. Adebayo, 36, first entered into prostitution when she was 12-years-old, which is the average age when children enter into prostitution in Minnesota, according Moving Upstream.
“Sex trafficking happens everywhere,” Adebayo said.
Adebayo has been in the Bemidji area for 11 years and said that sometimes the community is not very welcoming to outsiders. ..Continued.. by Crystal Dey
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