New Jersey’s Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa will be making an announcement on actions the state will take to combat human trafficking. He told student’s from Jefferson Township Middle School’s Project Stay Gold program about the upcoming announcement when he came to visit the school on Tuesday.

Chiesa came to the school because he was so impressed with the Project Stay Gold program that he invited the students involved in it to have lunch with him in Trenton. However, due to scheduling conflicts a date couldn’t be arranged, so instead he came to visit the students.

Project Stay Gold is a program started by several students about a year ago under the direction of middle school social studies teacher Dan Papa. The program was started to bring awareness to and education about the problem of human trafficking in the United States and all over the world.

The students posed questions to Chiesa about his viewpoint and work on the issue of human trafficking.

“It’s great that you are doing this program, because human trafficking is incredibly destructive,” Chiesa said. “It attacks the most vulnerable people and tries to exploit them.”

Chiesa said he was so impressed with this program because he found that the students have clearly thought about the issues and understand them.

“I can tell you this much, I wasn’t talking to my teachers about human trafficking when I was 14 years old,” he said.

He said he’d like to see more schools work on programs likes these for issues about which they feel passionate.

“The fact that you’ve taken these steps is great, and it’s a gift you can give to other schools,” Chiesa said. “If other schools could take on program like this about gangs, drugs, abusive relationships, it would really help other students.”

The students present at Chiesa’s presentation were Nathaniel Hirschman, Mark Dominguez, Andrew DelRosario, Luke Langner, Ina Joseph, Taylor VanBartheld, Skylar Farmer, Nicolette Lehman, Christina Ferrucci, Kate Stoppiello and Victoria King. They were joined by teachers Sharon Ciliento, Nancy Harris and Dan Papa.