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| Mollie Emrick, one of the End It Movement organizers, stands next to the sign advertising "Shine a Light on Slavery Day" |
By Chloe Johnson
March 2, 2017
Life is full of important movements for change and freedom. Several ninth graders have made it their mission to create awareness in the DRSS community about the hidden world of modern day slavery. According to a CNN article, in January of 2015, “The second annual edition of the Walk Free Foundation's Global Slavery Index has found that globally, almost 36 million people are subject to modern slavery.”
These statistics may have changed in the past several years. However, the problem is still out there. The End It Movement is an organization that holds an event every year to continue the conversation about how to prevent human trafficking. According to Mollie Emrick, a ninth grader who is promoting this organization, stated, “We noticed that a lot of people at our school didn’t know about it. We wanted to raise awareness to show that modern day slavery still exists.”
The significant feature of the event is the red X. People wear the red X on their hands to show their support for victims of human trafficking. Specifically, this event was on February 23, 2017, but the students commemorated it on March 2nd. Mollie stated, “They mostly wear red Xs, and they also sell clothes that are not made with the use of slavery. It has the name of the person who made the shirt on it.” People from every country are being taken and forced into this world of uncertainty. Even close to home, there have been several reports about human trafficking being a huge problem near the I-75 and I-70 intersection.
Instead of calling this day the name of the organization, the students decided to call this event, “Shine a Light on Slavery Day.” The students made announcements, stating facts about what is happening in the hidden realm of slavery each day. Also, they encouraged students to wear red and showed statistics about modern-day slavery on the TVs located around the school.
Mollie stated, “The first step to action is awareness.” The group of ninth graders who assisted with this project include: Mollie Emrick, Kylie Sauer, Emily Ritchie, Kimberly Branham, and AJ Davis. It is inspiring to see DRSS students starting conversations about subjects that truly are not talked about enough.
