Ambassadors
Oceanside resident Danielle Grijalva has spearheaded the drive to change state and federal law in order to protect foreign exchange students. Michael J. Kacmarcik | mike@tlnews.net
OCEANSIDE - Danielle Grijalva is a stereotypical stay-at-home mom to her three elementary-school children. She wakes up early enough to make their lunches and goes to sleep only after they've finished their homework.
Four years ago, she started a job that would allow her to work from her family's home in Oceanside. It sounded perfect.
Grijalva was an area representative for the Center for Cultural Interchange, a foreign exchange student program based in St. Charles, Ill. She helped find host families for students studying in the U.S., securing high school placement for them as well as advising them on local culture and customs.
It was fun. She worked hard to understand her students' likes and dislikes. Students with allergies were placed in pet-free homes, students with music studies were placed in homes where families owned pianos.
And then, on Sept. 20, 2004, she learned about what she calls "the dark side" of the foreign exchange program.
A 16-year-old exchange student from France sat in her living room and told her that within a month of his arrival his host father photographed him when he was sleeping, showed him online pornography and offered him alcohol.
Grijalva's instincts as a mother took over and she looked for help from everyone she could think of: local police, employers, school administrators. The more she researched, the more she learned that abuse at the hands of host families or individuals, across the world, was a silent problem.
More than 30,000 students arrive in the U.S. each year through foreign-exchange programs and 2,000 of those students are in California. Grijalva believes that abuse can go unreported due to language barriers, cultural differences and student fears that visas may be taken away.
"I began to ask questions," she said. ". . . These were invisible victims."
So, Grijalva took what she knew, what she knew to be wrong, and decided to make a change. She started the Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students (CSEFS) a year ago, gathering 150 members across the world. Many members are lawyers or law enforcement officers; others are host parents or former or current students.
She started a media blitz to bring attention to the abuse - sexual, verbal, even extortion - that high-school-age foreign exchange students suffer.
She started a letter-writing, phone-calling campaign that targeted the federal and state government, demanding regulations that protect students and require background checks for host families.
"Those who were in a position to make change didn't want to," she said. "I wanted to bring awareness to something no one was really watching."
On May 4, in the form of a belated 40th birthday gift, she said, new federal rules went into effect. The bill states that host families and individuals must undergo criminal background checks before being accepted into exchange programs.
Students must also receive information about how to identify and report sexual abuse.
"We were getting some concerns from various (groups)," said a spokeswoman from the State Department's Office of Exchange Coordination and Designation. ". . . There isn't anything more important than the safety and welfare of our exchange program students."
In June, the state assembly will vote on AB 2899, a bill that will decide whether or not a law will be broken if background checks are not done.
Grijalva has documented 54 cases of sexual abuse and extortion, while the state department had only reported five cases of sexual abuse by last summer. Since then, 20 additional cases of alleged abuse have been reported to the state department, according to the same spokeswoman.
"As I've said before, it's a sign of the times," said John Hishmeh, executive director for the Council on Standards for International Educational Travel. "We have to increase the safety and have more in-depth criminal screening."
The problem, she added, is larger than anyone thinks. But a number of high-profile cases led government officials to take action.
A high school biology teacher in Gaithersburg, Md., was convicted last year on two counts of sexual assault involving a 17-year-old German girl he hosted.
A 55-year-old man in Berea, Ky., pleaded guilty last month to sexually abusing a 15-year-old Taiwanese girl that stayed with his family.
A retired Roman Catholic priest in LaBelle, Fla., was forced to pay several monetary settlements after numerous victims filed civil lawsuits after staying in his home.
After appearing on MSNBC last summer, Grijalva received 400 e-mails in one week. After launching her Web site at the same time, she has received more than 12,000 e-mails. Sometimes, Grijalva receives gifts in the mail, tea coasters from South Korea or cards from Ecuador, simply thanking her for her work.
Grijalva is hoping to take what she has learned - "the Internet is a wonderful tool," she said - and turn CSFES into a nonprofit organization that can receive funding. For now, her work comes out of pocket.
"It's sheer determination, if you will," Grijalva said. "I knew what I knew. My family is my priority, but these students are 6,000, 7,000, 8,000, 9,000 miles away from their home, so I treat them as my own."
Reach reporter Jaimy Lee at 760.752.6754.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
