Local services available for runaway teens, families

A local teenager reported missing in Monday's IDS is back in her mother's custody, after neighborhood children spotted her Sunday afternoon and local law enforcement officials rounded her up from a five-day long runaway spree. \nJody Kinser said she received numerous sightings about her daughter's whereabouts from community members, some indicating she was close to home and others indicating she might have fled to as far away as Pennsylvania. While pursuing a different lead, she said she received a call from a neighbor Sunday positively identifying her daughter's location, at which time the Bloomington Police Department was called and officers apprehended her daughter from the arms of a 23-year-old living in a nearby apartment complex.\n"You've got to be careful with kids," Kinser said. "These guys don't care that they're 15 years old."\nMYSPACE ACCOUNT\nFrom the time she realized her daughter was missing July 19, Jody said she began scouring her daughter's MySpace profile and other Internet accounts for possible clues about her disappearance through her "friend" status with her child. Kinser said she also had a MySpace account, in part to keep tabs on her daughter's communiqués, and she said she was "horrified" to see some of the stuff her daughter had posted and was receiving.\n"I never knew really how much it touches home really ... It says right there on their profile that they're 15 -- it's a sad thing," Kinser said. "The computer can be such a good thing because kids learn from it, but at a certain point they are learning the wrong things ... I've told her a thousand times there are these kinds of people out there. You may think your kid is safe because you don't have a computer at home but they have access to it at school and at the library, and nobody is monitoring them."\nAlthough Jody admitted the actual underlying causes of her daughter's willingness to runaway had little to do with MySpace and a lot to do with interfamily turmoil, she recommended parents keep a watchful eye on their children's Internet activities to prevent any runaway from having an unsafe place to go that is inhabited by adults not related to family members or other trusted friends. About 1,200 children runaway each day, according to the Children's Defense Fund.\nFAMILY HELP\n"My message to parents is ask for help when you need it. There's seems to be a real expectation that we're all going to be good parents, but we've never done this before with this kid -- if you are struggling at home reach out to somebody because we are each others greatest resources," said Bloomington resident and parent of children ages 2 to 17 Christine McAfee, juvenile division supervisor for the Monroe County Probation Department. "My message to kids is to also reach out: Find an adult in your life you trust and that is trustworthy. Don't ask the person who is going to give you the answer you want to hear but the person who will give you the answer you need."\nMcAfee said 52 runaways were reported to her office in 2005, three cases more than in 2004. She said running away is a crime because persons under 18 by law can not leave home without their parents permission or go someplace their parents do not approve of without first obtaining parental consent.\n"Typically things escalate for the runaway, and we become involved when the child is involved in some kind of delinquent behavior when they're gone, or when running away becomes more of a matter of control then a time-out," McAfee said. \nMcAfee reminded parents to call local law enforcement officials if the child does runaway, and to report back to the police once the child is found, even if the juvenile returns home without incident so the root causes of the family conflict can be identified and so the family can receive the help it needs.\nAccording to the National Runaway Switchboard, 1-800-RUNAWAY that links youth in crisis with local help, about 1,800 calls were made from Indiana in 2005, including 333 from Monroe County. Runaway demographics say two of three have never done so before; about eight out of 10 are female; about six out of 10 are between the ages of 14 and 17; about seven out of 10 spend one week or less on the street; and about four out of 10 report "family dynamics" as the primary reason for running away.\nFIRST RESORT\nBloomington resident Robin Donaldson, assistant director for the Youth Services Bureau of Monroe County, said the Youth Shelter received more than 80 juveniles "on the run" in 2005 -- that is they were not where they were supposed to be at that time. Youth Shelter staff welcomes runaways at any time, but she said juveniles wishing to leave home should contact 349-2507 to determine a better path than leaving and breaking the law.\n"If you are running away to go to a party or to see your boyfriend, there are consequences to those behaviors. If things are bad at home there are other alternatives that will keep them out of trouble," she said. "If you are running away because something is wrong at home, go to a safe place because that's a way to get help. There are plenty of support services for both children and parents like 'how do I communicate with this person' or 'how do I make this a tolerable situation.' Sometimes it takes a third party to see what is doable."\nMcAfee said both parents and children should not fear community support in helping ease their tension, especially considering free family counseling is available at the Youth Services Bureau and on a sliding scale if not free at the IU Center for Human Growth.\nJody said her relationship with her daughter is strained, and she admitted she could use all the help the community has to offer to better her relationship with her daughter and address the underlying causes of their family conflict.\n"We've got a long way to go and we've got some issues to go through. She's pretty angry at me right now," Kinser said. "I don't think she had any intention of coming home. Her mind was clouded and she was swept away"