Rethink Resources

Last week I came upon a news item that I needed to reflect on first. Actually it was two items from the Toledo Blade. In the first dated June 23rd,

Concerned Ga. officials arrive to help comatose teen: The apparent overdose in Toledo of a former teenage prostitute has drawn authorities from Atlanta, where her courtroom testimony in April put the man who raped her in prison for at least five years.

Samantha Walker, 18, has been in a coma since Sunday. She was dropped off by a man police would not identify at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, where she was in critical condition last night.

Officials said she ingested an undetermined quantity of over-the-counter pain relievers.

And then the second dated June 30th,

Test results awaited in apparent drug death

The Lucas County Coroner’s Office will wait for results of toxicology tests before ruling in the death of a former Toledo teen prostitute.

Samantha Walker, 18, died Wednesday in St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, where she was taken June 24 after an apparent overdose of prescription pain relievers.

I’m both sad and angry hearing of her death. While it’s clear that some communities are making efforts at arrests and convictions of people responsible for sexually assaulting, beating and pimping youth out, what very few people know how to do is actually support youth before, during and after those legal processes (and youth who never come under the attention of law enforcement).

You see, the cops always leave. The reporters move on. Even the victim court advocates don’t have the ability or knowledge to support youth impacted by the sex trade. Everyone shrugs their shoulders about “resistant victims” and wonders what they could’ve done. My answer is plenty.

But something more struck me as I read these two articles. It sounded familiar. And sure enough,

Published on May 8, 2006, Blade, The (Toledo, OH) Teen prostitute found dead had slipped away long ago: This is part of an ongoing Blade investigation into teens exploited for sex. With the recent death of a teenage prostitute in East Toledo, local authorities lost another round against men who exploit girls for sex and money. Federal investigators lost a key witness in their case against a nationwide underage sex-trade ring. And Mary Groth lost her only daughter. Melissa Palmer - known on the street as “Snowflake” - was unconscious at a Whittemore Street home…

That’s all I could find online. No link, the article is archived on the Toledo Blade site and available for a small cost. I remember she also died of an overdose and people questioned if it was deliberate on her part, accidental or murder in an effort to silence her and her role in testifying.

Again, I ask - where was her support? So people mourn having ‘lost her a long time ago’ but did they really try?

Everytime I link to an article about some arrest or trial about youth in the sex trade I think about that lack of support that is a reality everywhere. How the adults come in, get what they want, and then walk away.

And this needs to change.