An Oakland, California, community is in shock after repeatedly seeing groups of suspected prostitutes and human trafficking victims reportedly soliciting outside a Catholic grade school.Â
“I get the call saying – ‘Mr. Gallo, I can’t get into my home because the pimp is blocking my driveway,'” Oakland City Councilman Noel Gallo told ABC 7 of the weekly calls he receives from residents in East Oakland. “It’s constant.”
The Oakland Police Department is beefing up patrols outside St. Anthony’s K-8 Catholic school after parents and school leaders sounded the alarm on the young, scantily-clad women and girls they see walking near East 15th Street in Oakland.Â
Last week, ABC 7 reported that as parents arrived at the grade school on Monday morning, a suspected prostitute was already near the school, apparently soliciting right in front of the school’s gate. But the scene isn’t uncommon.Â
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“It’s every day, during all periods of the day,” local mom Rosa Vargas told the outlet.Â
Vargas said the women are typically wearing skimpy outfits, and even sometimes naked, and often standing right in front of the gate of the school. Pimps have even followed her down the street on a couple of occasions, she said.Â
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Nearby International Boulevard has long been plagued with prostitution and other crimes, but construction on East 12th Street has pushed the prostitutes into residential neighborhoods, ABC 7 reported.Â
Some of the girls are only 15 or 16 years old, according to Gallo, which has set off concerns of human trafficking.Â
“We’ve seen up to 20 women walking up and down this street,” Gallo said. “Young, young girls.”
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