Mercer students ‘jamming up’ sex trafficking in Macon

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – A new student group at Mercer University may have cracked the code on talking to Macon’s youth about the dangers of sex trafficking.

Students at Mercer University are doing their part to stop ‘traffick’ in Macon–that is–trafficking of adolescents for sex.

“We have a group of students that are going in to schools and talking to kids about it,” said Mercer student Mary Marudas.

Traffick Jam is partnering with the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office and Bibb County Schools to bring awareness at four local high schools about sex trafficking.

Sgt. Tania Clausen has worked cases of crimes against children for the last two years. She says the sheriff’s office is looking forward to working with Traffick Jam in the future.

“They want the same common goal that we do, and that’s to help children,” she added.

School Manager Mary Marudas was a 15-year-old girl not too long ago. She says it can be hard for teens to open up about such a touchy subject.

“It’s very different if a teacher or a parent or some other adult figure was going to give this information to them, they might feel like its less relatable, or they might not even listen to it,” she said.

That’s why Clausen believes it’s so important that college students are involved. “The college students can probably get more information from the teenagers than we can most of the time, so I think they’ll do really good work for us,” she said.

Last week was the group’s first time visiting students at Northeast, Southwest, Westside, and Howard High Schools.

“We’re connecting with students playing sports, doing different games, and icebreakers,” said student Sydney Simpson.

Marudas says they hope to bond with students. “We do relationship building and just sort of fun things where we can get to know them better, and they get to know us better,” she added.

Students in the group say their goal is to drive out sex trafficking in Macon through educating teens. They want to educate students in a way they can relate and feel safe, with people closer in age.

Students in the group say they hope to expand to more schools in Bibb County and eventually branch out to other states. As many as 300,000 children in America are lured into sex slavery every year.