Georgia State students participate in Lobby Day

Last week, students from all across Georgia met at the Capitol to show their support for Senate Bill 304 at Lobby Day.

Atlanta is number one in sex trafficking in America. This includes child sex trafficking. To stop victims of child sex slavery, Bill 304 wishes to redefine the definition of child sex trafficking.

Around 400 people showed up to Lobby Day, including many students from Georgia State. At least half of these attendees were in college.

The students who met there were handed a packet on child sex slavery and a white rose. Everyone who was in assembly wore black shirts and stood in the lobby of the Capitol, since no other room could hold the massive amount of people. Individuals put in messages to their specific state representative while the Senate and the House were in session.

Throughout the morning and early afternoon, Senators left the assembly or had individual meetings with students in their offices.

“I got to talk to my representative, Mike Coan, for over an hour. It’s nice to know that someone else cares about child sex slaves and wants to do something about it,” said Georgia State student Leah Cim.

“Since Alanta is number one is sex trafficking, something needs to be done. Just being there will help. It’s the least I can do, and I am definitely paying more attention to the problem,” said Georgia State student Daniel Robinson.

Last year, Senate Bill 69 passed. This bill expanded the definition of child abuse to include anyone who allows, permits, encourages, or commits the abuse. Child victims of sex slavery used to be sent to juvenile prisons when they were picked up due to a lack of protocol on how to take care of these individuals.

Senate Bill 304 proposes a solution to this problem. If enacted, individuals under the age of 16 will not be charged with prostitution. The pimps will be gone after more aggressively. Also, instead of sending the victims to juvenile prisons, they will be sent to Fulton Fire Stations, where a care network will pick them up within 24 hours.

Some of these care networks include Well Spring Living and Angela’s House. These organizations help physically and emotionally in the well being of victims of sexual abuse and prostitution.

Senate Bill 304 was proposed by Renee Unterman and the bill needs to be passed in the Senate to move onto the House.

Lobby Day was organized by Origin, a campus ministry of Water’s Edge.

To find out more about Senate Bill 304, visit http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/sum/sb304.htm.

“Lobby Day was great but the bill is still in the Senate. We need to make sure we keep talking to our Senate and House Representatives to keep the bill moving and make people more aware of this problem,” said Cim.
 

Be the first to comment on this article!

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out