APS employees learn about the dangers of human trafficking. Image via Twitter.

Atlanta Public School (APS) employees are learning the sobering facts about human trafficking, and what their role is in preventing it.

In a meeting held Friday, Jan. 11 – commemorating National Human Trafficking Awareness Day – APS employees learned from experts in the field about the dangers of sex trafficking, forced labor, involuntary servitude, debt bondage, forced marriage and other forms of trafficking, according to program materials. The underground sex industry in Atlanta generates approximately $300 million annually, APS Superintendent Meria Carstarphen wrote on Twitter.

The program featured remarks by Carstarphen and presentations by Jordan Greenbaum, a child abuse physician with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Deborah Richardson, executive director of the International Human Trafficking Institute, program materials indicate.

In addition to educating staff members about the nature and dangers of trafficking, the Atlanta school board approved two policies in December aimed at combatting trafficking in the city, according to program materials. The first measure has to do with education of staff members and the support or victims; the second measure compels anyone employed by APS to report instances of domestic minor sex trafficking to the point-of-contact within the school’s Care Incident Response Team.

Additionally, APS is in the process of launching a Human Trafficking and Exploitation Education and Awareness Campaign to address human sex trafficking and child exploitation, according to program materials.