Exploring the Dark Corners of Injustice in Our Gender Studies Class

This week, Ms. Brown’s Grade 11 Gender Studies class welcomed Dr. Azurdee Garland who is the founding director of Phoenix Rising Inc., based in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Dr. Garland is a Vocational Coordinator and Rehabilitation Instructor at the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice by day and she runs a non-profit organization that supports victims of human trafficking by night. She helps to rescue victims of human trafficking and creates a safe haven of rehabilitation for them. Since the inception of Phoenix Rising, she and her dedicated team have served over 1100 victims of human trafficking. She is tireless in her efforts to ensure that survivors of human trafficking receive the support they need to heal.

Dr. Garland educated our students about exploitative behaviour and how they can be in a more informed position to identify the signs of when someone is at risk of being trafficked. There is very little information in the public domain about human trafficking and misinformation is pervasive. Education is key in order to end human trafficking. 

Some sobering facts: 

Based on the observations and questions that students shared with Dr. Garland before her visit, she determined that there were three common threads: coping strategies to deal with trauma, love (and how trafficking and abuse distort what love is), and how the justice system responds to victims of human trafficking. One area of the conversation that elicited a lot of discussion was how cases of human trafficking are handled by the court of law. Dr. Garland reviewed the differences between civil and criminal charges and explained that in many cases, the charges against perpetrators are reduced and even dropped. When asked how victims can reconcile this reality, Dr. Garland said she encouraged people to ask, “What does justice look like for you?” and shared her own perspective about what justice is for her: “Justice for me is living a better life than anything those people [her perpetrators] expected for me.”

It is unacceptable that survivors of human trafficking are inadequately protected (and even prosecuted themselves) and that handlers and those who employ handlers are not being prosecuted in a manner that validates the trauma experienced by the victims. Our Gender Studies class asked how they could advocate for the rights of those who have suffered. Dr. Garland said, “You have a voice. You have power in who you are…You can say, ‘justice is not working.’ Use your voices. Stand together.”

“It was perhaps unusual that a guest speaker on human trafficking would come on Valentine's Day to a Gender Studies class and yet it was not because Dr. Garland's message was grounded in love. Here are just five of her wise offerings: ‘Love is waking up in the morning and caring about yourself; caring about yourself is just as important as loving other people. You learning how to love the skin you're in is as important as you finding a romantic partner...Love is figuring out you are not your trauma or whatever someone has said to you.’” - Ms. Brown

“Her time with us was transformational and the class is in a much more informed position to enact positive change.” - Ms. Brown