During the most critical period of Jessica’s childhood, adults who could have intervened to protect her from abuse let her down over and over. As a child she was sexually abused in her home and ended up living with her grandmother for a time. At age 11 she became a victim to child sex trafficking when she fell into the clutches of a local pimp. She was never treated as a victim or a sexual assault survivor, even by the police. At school she was stalked and sexually harassed by a school administrator known to pay for sex. Jessica was sold for sex by her pimp for the next several years until she finally found a way out through The Mary Magdalene Project, a local social service agency. She often called herself a “prostitute,” but through her healing and advocacy work Jessica now knows how important language is and understands she was sexually exploited.
When Tanisha was in junior high she got into a fight at school. Instead of the argument being mediated or the discipline handled by the school, she was funneled into Los Angeles County’s juvenile justice system and given probation for getting into the fight. While on probation Tanisha, who had to rely on public transportation, was occasionally late for school which led to truancy tickets which were considered a probation violation. As a result Tanisha was arrested and detained at a juvenile detention center. When she arrived she was scared and depressed, but rather than providing her help from mental health professionals, she says detention officers placed her in “the box,” or solitary confinement, for days. Cold, hungry, and extremely frightened, it took her a very long time to heal.
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