Go to the link to see the comments. Interesting.
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Waukegan school criticized for handling of missing girl
Police weren't called after mother's report to school
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October 23, 2008
By DAN MORAN <!-- e --><a href="mailtoMORAN@SCN1.COM">DMORAN@SCN1.COM</a><!-- e -->
WAUKEGAN -- A recent incident in which a 6-year-old girl was mistakenly released from school and told to walk home was criticized by city officials Monday, who said school personnel should have called police when the girl's mother reported her missing.
"There's nothing more important to us than finding a missing child, (and) there are all kinds of things we can do in a situation like that," said Police Chief William Biang, adding that the dilemma could have been addressed by the department's relatively new Child Abduction Response Team.
Deidra Powers spoke to the City Council about the Sept. 15 incident, saying she tried to address Waukegan School District officials about the situation and wasn't convinced it was being taken seriously.
"My daughter was missing for two hours," Powers said, adding that a distant relative spotted her daughter on the street and took her home. "It was through the grace of God that she was found, (but) what if she wasn't? Did my daughter have to die?"
Mayor Richard Hyde, a retired Waukegan school administrator, was among those encouraging Powers to press the current administration for more answers. First Ward Ald. Sam Cunningham, acknowledging that he was a former classmate of Powers', asked Police Chief William Biang if he could discuss the case with the school district's head of security.
Biang said he felt that "the school should have called us as soon as they were aware" that the girl, apparently mistaken for another student with a similar name who lives near the school, had been released in error.
"We weren't called until late in the process," said Biang, adding that "we should have been called immediately" to allow the CART system to be activated.
According to Biang, the abduction-response team was put together within the last year around the same model as the national AMBER Alert missing child network. The team, trained through a U.S. Department of Justice program, is headed by Waukegan juvenile officer Brian Mullen and works with the Lake County Major Crime Task Force to deploy officers from multiple agencies when a child is reported missing or abducted.
"It's been in effect for about a year, not quite a year, but it fortunately hasn't been activated yet for an abduction," Biang said. "It's in place, ready to go with search teams, dog teams, all kinds of resources."
In the rare case a student is missing at school, the principal is responsible for notifying all staff of the missing student and contacting the police, said William Newby, executive director of safety and security for Waukegan Public Schools.
"It's basically an all-call to everybody, all hands on deck, let's find this kid," Newby said.
He mentioned a recent case two weeks ago were a student was discovered missing a few minutes after a bathroom break, and after all school staff were notified, the student was found wandering the halls.
"Each situation is different," Newby said. "Most likely kids are just wandering when not supposed to."
Powers said her daughter, who normally either rides the bus or walks with a relative, didn't know the way home on foot and was traumatized by the experience. She added that she wants to make sure there are consequences for the mistake.
"I feel like nobody cares," she said, "like they're sweeping it under the rug."