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CAMTC Honors CA State Senator Lou Correa

By Editorial Staff

In closing out a busy 2011, the California Massage Therapy Council (CAMTC) honored California State Senator Lou Correa with its Legislator of the Year award at the final 2011 Board of Directors meeting.

Dixie Wall, CAMTC Chair, and Michael Schroeder, Vice President of the American Massage Council and CAMTC Board member presented the award to Sen. Correa for his work on SB285, the anti-human trafficking legislation. Senate Bill 285 was supported by Orange County California District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and passed unanimously in the House and the Senate. Sen. Correa, District Attorney Rackauckas and the entire CAMTC Board were honored as Massage Today Heros of the Profession in our December 2011 issue.

The need for SB285 was uncovered through CAMTC's investigative efforts, when it discovered several so called "massage schools" were in fact selling fraudulent transcripts. CAMTC believed this was not only fraud, but a major contributing factor in allowing human trafficker's the ability to operate.

Mike Schroeder, CAMTC Board Member; California State Senator Lou Correa and CAMTC Chair Dixie Wall. "When CAMTC went to prosecute these paper mill 'schools,' we found there was no law in place to do so. SB285 gives CAMTC the necessary power by first criminalizing the conduct of these schools and making it a misdemeanor to sell or alter a transcript. It also allows local law enforcement to share information with CAMTC, including the massage therapy instruction of the prosecuted persons, thus furthering our investigative efforts. These two vital changes not only help to prevent human trafficking, but aids CAMTC in its mission to protect the public," said Dixie Wall, CAMTC Chair.

For additional information on SB285, read "In the Shadows: Human Trafficking, Fraud and the Cost to the Massage Profession," from the June 2011 issue of Massage Today and "2011 Heros of the Profession" from the December 2011 issue.