Report Linking Institutions to Sex Trafficking Prompts Congressional Investigation – Inside Higher Ed
The Department of Education has been asked to share its policies and procedures for protecting against sex trafficking in postsecondary education following a report linking vocational schools to prostitution or human trafficking.
A report by the Selden/Haring-Smith Foundation described an investigation into a for-profit institution in Minnesota, formerly called the American Academy of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine (AAAOM), that found fraud and suspicious behavior within the institution’s massage therapy program, such as application irregularities and internship site supervisors who lacked massage licenses or had connections to prostitution. The foundation also discovered 17 other institutions in five states that were disciplined or closed for engaging in behaviors that could indicate sex trafficking.
A separate USA Today investigation, published a day after the report was presented to the department, found two dozen institutions that were connected to prostitution, fraud or both.