A survivor’s tale and an FBI agent’s mission were the focus at the “Slavery Isn’t Dead–The Fight against Sex Trafficking in Northwest Ohio” program held in Olscamp last night.

Over 200 students attended the sex trafficking seminar sponsored by the Honor Students Association, Honors Program, Women’s Center, Women’s Studies and the American Association of University Women-Bowling Green Branch.

Survivor, author and victim’s advocate Theresa Flores spoke about being victimized as a teenager by human trafficking.

Several years ago, Flores attended a conference for human trafficking and as she sat there, listening to the information on this form of slavery, she quickly knew why she was supposed to be there. She said tears streamed down her face as she finally realized there was a term for what happened to her over 20 years ago.

As a teenager in Birmingham, Mich. Flores was caught in sex slavery. She was taken to inner city Detroit and was guided into a motel room where her pimp said, “Here’s your reward” to the 24 men lined up, waiting for her. She was sold to the highest bidder.

“When we think of human trafficking, we think of India, Cambodia, Russia and Mexico,” she said. “We never think of this happening here in America. If there was one word to describe America, almost everyone would say, ‘freedom.’ People don’t think to think that people are not free in this country.”

Flores continued her story. At times where the words seemed too difficult for her to speak, she would pause and lift her head before continuing.

“This is America’s dirty little secret,” she said. “I never walked the streets. I was driven in expensive cars, to very big houses. America has a distorted view of what sex trafficking really is. It is the second leading crime in the world, and it continues to thrive. Using threats and manipulation to gain financially, pimps give these girls no other alternative lifestyle.”

From that moment on, Flores became an advocate for teenage sex trafficking, publishing two books, “The Sacred Bath” and “The Slave Across the Street.”

“When I learned of the numbers, I knew this was an epidemic,” Flores said. “It is a very difficult thing to heal from–in fact I will never be able to fully recover from it–but I escaped. Most slavery is still alive, but I have hope that we can finally end this.”

Special Agent Jack Hardie has been employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for nine years. He is currently assigned to the Cleveland Division, Toledo Resident Agency where he serves as the coordinator of the FBI’s Northwest Ohio Violent Crimes Against Children Taskforce (NWOVCACTF). Hardie has extensive experience investigating violent crimes and has recovered or identified 60 victims of child prostitution.

“I work with the ILNI, or Innocence Lost National Initiative,” Hardie said, “there are 34 task forces that have worked on 801 cases and recovered 904 children, the youngest child recovered being only nine years old.”

Hardie works to seek out intelligence concerning prostitution in different territories, identify and recover juvenile victims and conduct regular prostitution stings.

“During our last investigation, we have had 153 arrests, and Toledo is now the number four city in the nation of prostitution,” he said. “Toledo … where sex trafficking originates. The children the ‘pimps’ or ‘madams’ take are ‘groomed’ to be sold to destination cities such as Chicago, New York, Washington, as well as cities where the Super Bowl, World Series, and fraternity conventions take place.”

Hardie explained that the pimps are master manipulators and sex trafficking can be best described as a medium between the movie “Taken” and “Pretty Woman.”

Freshman Marissa Swain came to the “Slavery Isn’t Dead” event because after seeing the movie “Taken,” she wanted to learn more about taking precautions, mostly when traveling.

“The movie was an adrenaline rush, but made me a little frustrated that the female characters in the movie were so naive about traveling, but it was also eye-opening,” Swain said. “I wanted to come to see the real side of it, and not just Hollywood’s take on sex slavery. I wanted the facts.”