Ashley McAree isn’t on Facebook, but she doesn’t have to be to keep up-to-date on viral stories about human trafficking spreading on the platform. Her friends often text her posts written by people who think they were the target of a trafficking scheme because they found a zip tie or a pair of sunglasses on their car in a parking lot. McAree, a forensic nurse at Towson’s Greater Baltimore Medical Center and human trafficking liaison for the hospital’s Sexual Assault Forensic Examination, Domestic Violence and Child Protection Program, has mixed feelings about these sorts of posts.
“Any awareness is good about, you know, human trafficking is happening here,” she said. “However, it actually harms victims, because when we think human trafficking should look this certain way or fit in this little box that’s preconceived, we’re going to miss actual signs that we could look for or actual red flags for true victims.” “The truth is that human trafficking, it is happening all around us.
It’s happening to so many different populations of people,” she continued. “Sometimes they say it’s ‘hidden in plain sight,’ because it’s not what we’re going to see in the movies.” Educating community members, from teachers and court-appointed special advocates to naval officers and school resource officers, about what human trafficking is and what it’s not is a vital role that GBMC’s Anti-Human Trafficking Initiative plays in Baltimore County and elsewhere .