SAN LEANDRO, Calif. — Toni J., an effervescent 16-year-old who talks on speed-dial, lives with 11 family members in West Oakland...
on a street buffeted by gang activity and poverty. Her mother died of an overdose, her father in a revenge shooting. In ninth grade, she was raped while on probation for shoplifting.
on a street buffeted by gang activity and poverty. Her mother died of an overdose, her father in a revenge shooting. In ninth grade, she was raped while on probation for shoplifting.
At odds with the law from a young age, Toni has appeared in court 38 times. But things are suddenly starting to change thanks to an unusual collaboration between the judicial and social service systems. Toni is now doing well at school and even mentoring other at-risk girls.
“You’re stepping up to the plate,” Judge Rhonda Burgess said to Toni from the bench before recommending that she be taken off probation.
Like Toni, who was picked up along International Boulevard in Oakland, a major West Coast hub for sex trafficking, the vast majority of teenage girls who appear before Judge Burgess in the Alameda County Girls Court, a special tribunal for girls, have been recruited as child prostitutes or, like Toni, been considered at risk for involvement. (All those mentioned in this article are minors.)...[...]http://www.nytimes.com
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