12 | JANUARY 26 • 2023 

In 2016, NCJW
, in partnership with 
Bloomfield Hills and West Bloomfield 
School districts, held a 
symposium for hundreds of 
teens and their caregivers 
to teach how traffickers 
ensnare their victims and to 
offer community resources 
to prevent the crime. Now, 
Weintraub and Sitron 
are looking to re-energize their efforts 
with upcoming action and educational 
programming in the spring. Those looking 
for more information or who may want to 
get involved can contact NCJW at https://
ncjwmi.org/volunteer.
A retired high school teacher with 17 
years in the Detroit Public Schools and 
Walled Lake school districts, Sitron’s 
mission is to teach today’s teachers how to 
spot red flags that might indicate a human 
trafficking situation among their students. 
“While school psychologists and social 
workers have been trained in this area, 
it is necessary for teachers to attain this 
background as well,
” Sitron said. “Looking 
back at the years I was teaching, I knew 

of kids who had issues, but I didn’t know 
anything about trafficking at the time. it 
would be beneficial to go to various schools 
and educate the staff as well as the teachers 
so they can recognize the symptoms.
” 
According to Weintraub, she and Sitron 
initially decided to enroll in the training 
back in 2014 because, at that time, Lansing 
was starting to report increased numbers 
of trafficking victims in Michigan. Though 
numbers are still rising, Weintraub said 
her committee aims to take away the 
sensationalism, myths and conspiracy 
theories surrounding the practice and 
replace them with hard facts and data. 
“For example, it is very rare for a person 
to be kidnapped into a situation where they 
are forced into sex work or manual labor 
like you see in the movies,
” Weintraub 
said. “Often, it can be a vulnerable person 
who is promised work, fair wages and 
even housing by the trafficker, and then 
the person is told they must work off an 
unforeseen debt.
” 

IMMIGRATION POLICY
Ruby Robinson, managing attorney for 

Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, 
said this country’s longstanding lags 
in improving its immigration policies 
only exacerbate the numbers of those 
trafficked for either sex or 
labor. Just recently, he said his 
organization aided a client 
who was trafficked for three 
years in a Detroit African hair- 
braiding business. 
Robinson explained 
that from an immigration 
standpoint, trafficking fits into two 
categories: when someone is coerced or 
forced into the commercial sex trafficking 
trade or when they are forced or recruited 
into an employment situation where they 
are fraudulently told they are indebted 
to the trafficker, resulting in involuntary 
servitude. Robinson said it is not 
uncommon to find people in domestic 
situations, such as housecleaners or nannies 
in the suburbs of West Bloomfield or 
Bloomfield Hills. 
“Such situations can also be found in 
domestic or janitorial services, construction 
or even agriculture,
” Robinson said. 

OUR COMMUNITY

Rita Sitron

Ruby 
Robinson

continued from page 11

Sanctum House is a 
warm, inviting, beautiful 
home for the residents.

continued on page 14

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(248) 855-8000

4320 Orchard Lake Rd 
West Bloomfield Township, MI 48323
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