GRANT, Mich. — When School Resource Officer Justin Visser reflects on the human trafficking situation that was averted recently, he said he's astounded.
However, what stands out to him most is the 16-year-old’s bravery to speak up.
“The biggest thing I reflect on is the strength of the young lady coming forward, and this program that we put in here at Grant schools to give the kids the voice,” Visser said during an interview with Fox 17 on Thursday. “Then, after learning about that she came forward. It was just amazing that she came forward.”
Visser said the student had finished attending a human trafficking prevention seminar, put on by the district, and felt compelled to say something when she learned about the red flags.
“Part of the education is the grooming part of it, and she immediately went ‘Hey, there’s something not right about what is being said in these messages,'” Visser said. “So, when that happened she immediately, based on the classroom and what was taught for the grooming and what was being done online, she immediately said 'this isn’t right' and came to me.”
He then told a detective and his sergeant with the Grant Police Department. Then the Newaygo County Sheriff's Office, Michigan State Police, and the FBI got involved.
On January 14, 30-year-old Patrick Adam Lathrop was arrested at Ford International Airport, police said, after he flew in from Philadelphia to see her.
On Thursday, Fox 17 obtained court documents of Lathrop’s probable cause and arraignment. It stated that they had been messaging since November 2022 on a tablet she got at school, and the messages were “sexually explicit” and led to sexual activity.
“What are the things human traffickers do? They tell you things that you want to hear. They will try to have communication where they ask questions, where they then find your vulnerabilities, and then they feed off that,” Visser said about the other red flags the students learn. “Then they continue to feed off that.”
According to court documents, Lathrop worked in IT, and he persuaded the 16-year-old to log onto his computer remotely. Consequently, “he has every username, password, ability to see where she is, what she checks into, and what phone device, Wifi, IP address she logs in from.”
“So, when we talk to kids about that you know the big thing is ‘I can’t fall in love on social media. I can only fall in love with the person in front of me’” Visser said. “So, we try to tell the kids, have that personal relationship because anybody can say anything behind a camera or behind a phone.”
The documents also stated that the teen’s mother found out about the messages and that he sent her “pages and pages and pages of emails, harassing her and berating her” about her parenting.
“The biggest thing I tell parents is No. 1 is we have to check cell phones,” Visser said. “Got to check cell phones. The amount of hidden apps that are on cell phones. The amount of apps that are being used for kids that are communicating, they need to check phones.”
The second tip Visser gives parents is to not let their kids go to bed with a phone. That’s when a lot of communication takes place, he said.
“And No. 3 kids are smarter than us, especially with technology,” he said. “I’ve been doing the schools, this’ll be my fifth year and I’m behind schedule on apps. I try to keep up-to-date with apps and there’s apps that I’ve never even heard of that were being used for communication.”
After Lathrop was arrested he was arraigned in the Newaygo County 78th District Court on multiple charges including child sexually abusive activity, distributing sexually explicit material involving children, and using a computer to commit a crime. If he’s found guilty, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
As for the teen, she’s doing well, Visser said. He considered her to be one of the bravest students he knows.
“She was taught the red flags and immediately went ‘These are red flags,'” Visser said. “Again, was so strong, so strong to come and say something. Very very proud of her.”
For more guidelines on how to identify and assist trafficking victims, read here.
