Theresa Flores, 15, living in an up-scale Detroit neighborhood, became a sex slave. New to town, a cute guy offered her a ride home from school and she smittenly took him up on the offer. He took her to his house, kissed her, wouldn’t stop when she said no, and raped her. Stoutly Catholic, the shame of what happened to her caused her to keep it a secret…even from her mother.
Theresa Flores, Victim of Sex Slavery - Credit: MSNBC.com
Unbeknownst to her, the rapist’s cousins watched and took photos and these were used to blackmail her. The rapist took her to his cousins’ house. They gang raped and beat her and told her from then on, she had to do whatever they said. Three or four nights a week they would pick her up, drug her, rape her, and let paying “clients” rape her also. This went on for two years until Theresa moved. Her parents never knew.
In college she finally found the courage to say what had happened to her, but by then, it was too late to prosecute the initial rapist who psychologically tortured her into submission.
Theresa appeared on the Today Show today to tell her story…now 28 years later. She is a mother of three and has written a book about what she went through entitled “The Sacred Bath: An American Teen’s Story of Modern Day Slavery.” Amazon contributes this information about Theresa:
Ms. Flores has been a Licensed Social Worker for nearly twenty years. She holds a Master’s of Science in Counseling Education and is a Human Development Specialist. Ms. Flores writes a regular magazine article entitled Spiritual Parenting, facilitates a monthly kid’s group and is the mother of three children. She lectures nationally on parenting, multi-cultural issues and human trafficking. Ms. Flores’ mission is to educate others on the horrors of trafficking and fight against this huge injustice of innocent people. She hopes that by revealing her story, it will give victims of all types of abuse hope and assist in their healing process.
She has a website on this… http://traffickfree.com and has helped open a haven for trafficked girls in Ohio called Gracehaven House. Theresa says there are resources for foreign girls trafficked in the U.S., but not for American girls. There are only 39 beds for such girls in the entire country.
Your next door neighbor could be trafficking teenage girls and using them as sexual slaves. Girls don’t have to be moved somewhere to be trafficked. They could be leading otherwise normal lives and living at home. Your own daughter or sister or someone you know could be a sexual slave. If you have evidence of this or suspicion, you can call the Justice Department human trafficking hotline at 1-888-428-7581.
I wrote another post on human trafficking with statistics and what the state of Texas, where I live and which is one of the top areas where humans are trafficked, is doing about it.
Take the time to tune in to MSNBC on Sunday night starting at 8 p.m. EST for three programs on this topic: “Sex Slaves in America,” “Sex Slaves in the Suburbs,” and “Sex Slaves: The Teen Trade.” We all need to be educated on this topic and keep our eyes open and pay attention to those around us. Sexual slavery can happen anywhere.
I hope you’ll join me in contacting the White House and asking them to add Human Trafficking and Sexual Slavery in the U.S. to their agenda.
FOLLOW-UP
I watched the MSNBC shows mentioned above and they made the point repeatedly that most people have no idea how prevalent sexual slavery is in the U.S. Also, Theresa Flores was interviewed and I heard more of her story. She said on the worst night of her life, she was taken to a house where she was drugged and 20 men raped and beat her. Afterward she made her way in her shortie pajamas and a waitress helped her and called the police. They took her back to her home and her parents did not believe her…they thought she was just out partying…and the slavery continued since they did nothing. Truly, truly tragic.
I posted about human trafficking I think late last year. A horrible story about a young teenage girl in Florida. It is such a huge problem and so under reported. Thanks for posting about this. It’s such an important topic. I really like your work.
Thanks, Catherine. I really like your work, too. It is a huge problem. I hope it will get on President Obama’s radar. I’m glad the press is starting to pick it up and report on it.
I saw the one on Shauna Newell, but I saw this one yesterday. That was just horrifying. Thanks for the post. I plan topost on this again in a few months because I do not want people to forget about this. It’s just too important.
her parents were truly week. if it continued even after the police brought her home then this is a problem. But to say that law enforcement did not prosecute is misleading. you are making this country sound like it condones these things. in face they asked her to help them prosecute these criminals and she chose not to probably out of shame. but please dont say that the police did not try to do anything. that is just not true. also if she continued to do it without telling the police then it was out of her own free will and confusion.
Vallance, thanks for visiting and for commenting. This did continue after the police brought her home and the police did not prosecute these criminals. She told the police and her parents and no one believed her. When a woman is raped, it is NEVER out of her own free will. NEVER. She had no free will. Theresa was a teenage girl, was raped, was sold as a sex slave, and had no way out.
austin tx gall. i just dont believe. you . you are trying to say we are all victims. you are trying to tell me even though the cops were the ones that came over and brought her to her house they didnt even try to prosecute this. that is baloney. i know people who get arrested for shouting at a girl in the street and you are trying to tell me the cops didnt investiage something as severe as this. sorry but I DONT BELIEVE YOU>
besides she went with the boy home in the first place and she said over and over again that she likes him. so she likes iraqi boys. that is her choice. she just likes iraqi boys and she is trying to twist this whole thing into some rape case. she is even married to a hispanic. she likes exotic looking people. nothing wrong with that . just her preference. her last name is flores. sounds hispanic to me.
Vallance, thanks for reading. I can see that you don’t understand how girls and women can be controlled through rape and threats. You are looking at the surface and not grasping the deep psychological terror that happened to this woman and how that was used to control her and make her a sex slave.