Date Approved

6-21-2022

Embargo Period

6-24-2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ed.D. Doctor of Education

Department

Educational Services and Leadership

College

College of Education

Advisor

Shelley Zion, Ph.D.

Committee Member 1

Kara Ieva, Ph.D.

Committee Member 2

Brie Morettini, Ph.D.

Keywords

Black girls, consent, girls of color, secondary schools, sex trafficking, sex trafficking prevention

Subject(s)

Child trafficking victims

Disciplines

Student Counseling and Personnel Services

Abstract

Black girls who have experienced childhood sexual abuse are disproportionately exploited through domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST)- as the intersection of their experiences of systemic marginalization exacerbates their trauma and increases their vulnerability to DMST. The purpose of this critical qualitative study, involving 10 Black girls and 13 women of color advocates, was to explore the self-identified and observed ways in which systems, especially schools, silence Black and Brown girls, as well as their recommendations for educators/schools and other systems to play a role in DMST prevention. This study builds on existing research on the adultification, criminalization, and sexualization of Black girls, acknowledging the ways in which schools exacerbate vulnerabilities to sex trafficking for girls of color. Grounded in the expertise and experience of the co-creators/participants, this study proposes a School-Based Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Prevention Model for Girls of Color comprised of the following 8 components: 1) DMST education, 2) Comprehensive sex education & consent, 3) Healing-centered community, 4) Policies & protocols, 5) Restorative culture, 6) Culturally sustaining, 7) Community collaboration, and 8) Aligned with American School Counseling Association (ASCA) National Model.

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