Taking the Innocence of a Child is Shameful

A 14- year-old girl last week was kidnapped off the streets of Houston, Texas. After being held against her will for 5 days, she was taken to a motel, where she met a person named Denise Coronado. 

But Coronado was no friend. Instead, she threatened the girl. Coronado ground cigarettes into the girl’s body. She threatened everyone that the child loved. She published photographs of the girl on backpage.com, selling her on the marketplace of sex slavery. In a 1-week period, the young girl was forced to have sex with more than 20 men. Finally she escaped. 

But, the reality is that the victim sometimes never truly escapes. The horrors sometimes live with them forever. We can no longer be ignorant to modern day slavery. My legislation, the Shame Act, gives Federal judges the ability to publish the names and photographs of convicted buyers and sellers of humans. 

Those who sell or buy the innocence of children should be shamed for all to see. Put their photographs on backpage.com. 

And that is just the way it is.