Relationship Radar Grooming and Boundaries

A 5-lesson sequence for 7th graders focusing on the psychological aspects of human trafficking, specifically grooming, peer recruitment, and boundary setting. Students learn to identify manipulative relationship dynamics and practice refusal skills to protect themselves and their peers.

Healthy vs Unhealthy Dynamics

Students collaboratively build definitions of healthy relationships based on mutual respect versus unhealthy ones based on control. They use a continuum chart to place various behaviors, distinguishing between caring actions and possessive actions.

The Grooming Cycle

Students examine the specific stages of grooming, focusing on how perpetrators create a sense of indebtedness through gifts or special attention. The lesson emphasizes the danger of 'secret-keeping' within a relationship as a primary isolation tactic.

Spotting Peer Recruitment

This lesson dispels the myth that traffickers are always older adults by discussing peer-to-peer recruitment. Students learn how traffickers coerce young people to recruit their classmates and how to identify when a friend might be under someone else's control.

Isolation and Dependency

Students explore how exploiters drive a wedge between victims and their support systems (family, teachers, friends). They analyze scenarios where an abuser frames protectiveness as 'us against the world' to prevent the victim from seeking help.

Boundary Power and Refusal Skills

In this workshop, students practice verbal and non-verbal ways to say 'no' to uncomfortable requests. They role-play exiting conversations and situations that violate their personal boundaries.