"New Toolkit To Combat Sex Trafficking At Massage Schools”
NEW TOOLKIT TO COMBAT SEX TRAFFICKING AT MASSAGE SCHOOLS: The Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation is announcing this morning a new effort to help state regulators identify sex trafficking at massage therapy schools. The group is awarding a grant to the Colorado Department of Higher Education and the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards to jointly produce a toolkit for state authorizers of massage schools.
— A report by the foundation earlier this year and a USA Today investigation this summer highlighted problems with how state regulators oversee or respond to suspicions that massage schools may be linked to sex trafficking or prostitution. A congressional oversight panel is examining the issue, and the Education Department has said it plans to review an accrediting agency that approved a college that a state regulator said may have ties to prostitution.
— "We've always said we don't expect authorizers to act as SVU detectives, but nor should they be left ill-equipped and under-resourced to address what we know is happening across the country,” Abigail Seldin, the foundation’s CEO, said in a statement announcing the grant. The toolkit is expected to launch in December.
