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Parent urges schools to expand human trafficking awareness and prevention training
Summary
A parent and survivor advocate told the Willoughby-Eastlake board about her daughter's death and urged schools to educate staff and students about warning signs of trafficking and online exploitation.
During the public comment portion of the March 10 Willoughby-Eastlake City Schools Board of Education meeting, Carolyn Kinkoff, who identified herself as a survivor parent of a Willoughby-Eastlake graduate, urged the district to expand education and awareness about human trafficking and related exploitation.
Kinkoff described personal experience: her daughter Courtney, a graduate of Eastlake North High School who had been accepted to the Cleveland Institute of Art with a partial scholarship, struggled with mental health and substance-use issues and received services from the community provider Crossroads. Kinkoff said Courtney went missing from a group home in Willoughby on Nov. 9, 2021, and was found deceased months later in Cleveland on Feb. 7, 2022. Kinkoff said she has since co-founded the Alliance Against Human Trafficking and joined local victim-support groups.
She told the board that trafficking and exploitation can take many forms beyond kidnapping, including coercion into sex work, forced labor, online exploitation and extortion, and she urged age-appropriate instruction for students on trusted adults and online safety. Kinkoff recommended adults learn to distinguish myths from facts about trafficking and to recognize warning signs in students. She left a resource phone number (Ohio Attorney General’s child-victim hotline) for board members and offered to provide free presentations to schools and community organizations.
Board members accepted the public comment; no formal board action was taken during the public comment period.
