The Refuge in Bastrop, Texas.Photo: Eric Gay/AP/Shutterstock
A state-funded Texas shelter for young female victims of sex trafficking is under investigation after a former employee allegedly coerced two of its residents into creating “sexual exploitation material” for sale, the facilityconfirmed in a statementThursday.
Operators ofThe Refuge Ranchin Bastrop, which serves females ages 14-19, said they fired the employee after the allegations came to light on Jan. 24, and “immediately” alerted the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office and the state Department of Family and Protective Services.
One staff member of The Refuge Ranch, who was not identified, has been arrested, KXAN reports.
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The state welfare agency is now “conducting investigations to make sure we have done everything necessary to protect all the residents of The Refuge Ranch,” the facility said in its statement.
“Out of an abundance of caution, all the youth in our care have been placed in alternative care until this is all resolved,” the statement said.
“We work with the most vulnerable population and we care deeply for each of the 70 girls that have been in our care since we opened in 2018,” Brooke Crowder, founder and CEO of The Refuge, said in the statement. “Every girl that comes to The Refuge has her own unique life story, but each one endured the horrible trauma of child sexual exploitation.”
Rich Richman, an associate commissioner with the state welfare agency, told Judge Jack that other children weren’t immediately removed from The Refuge Ranch because state investigators thought the fired individual was the only one responsible, reports theTexas Tribune.
“The reports of child sex trafficking at The Refuge in Bastrop are abhorrent,” Abbott said in anews release. “Child abuse of any kind won’t be tolerated in the state of Texas, and we are committed to ensuring these despicable perpetrators are brought to justice and punished to the fullest extent of the law. No child should ever suffer the atrocities of trafficking.”
Onits website, The Refuge Ranch promotes itself as “the largest long-term, live-in rehabilitation facility for child survivors of sex trafficking in the United States” and is located on a 50-acres campus outside of Austin.
source: people.com
