Friday
Oct242008
Durham Police Chief Responds-Tekenya Wooten Found
Friday, October 24, 2008 at 12:47PM The Blogmother
Literally as the police chief was drafting a response to our concerns, Tekenya Wooten was found.
The Durham Police Department has been actively trying to locate Tekenya Wooten since she was last reported missing from the group home where she resides. It is clear that she left on her own accord. The investigation of this runaway is continuing with any and all leads being fully followed. We have enlisted the help of our community partners in an effort to locate Ms. Wooten, to include the Bus System and Mall/Shopping Centers security. Available information and photograph has been forwarded to all media outlets in the area. Although this case does not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert (http://www.amberalert.gov/guidelines.htm), the Durham Police Department is very concerned about her welfare.
Due to Juvenile privacy laws I am limited in the information that I can release but I can say that:
· Since September, 2008 the Durham Police Department has investigated three separate incidents of Ms. Wooten walking away from this same group home.
· The circumstances surrounding her pregnancy has been addressed in the jurisdiction that the incident occurred.
· Ms. Wooten’s information has been entered in NCIC, each time that she has been reported missing.
All runaways place themselves in harm’s way and as such the Durham Police Department puts every effort forward to locate them and return them to their residences.
During this writing, I have been informed that moments ago Tekenya Wooten has been located and taken into custody by a Durham Police Officer on Patrol who recognized her as she walked down the street.
Thank you for your interest and concern in this matter.
Jose L. Lopez, Sr.
Chief of Police
Durham Police Department
505 W. Chapel Hill Street
Durham, North Carolina 27701
Office: 919-560-4322
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Reader Comments (24)
So....
My guess is this child was just wandering around Durham and could have been "found" days ago. Wow.
In a month she ran away three times and she's pregnant? Have they bothered to figure out who she is running TO when she leaves? I can only imagine how she may be treated by an organization that was basically brow-beaten into finding her. Does she have ANY advocate out there? Will they just send her back to the group home for her to run away again?
Gina, you have done a really great job on this. If you have any updates on her condition after she is "released" please let us know.
Thank God! But I still think we need to follow up on the group home and how the system works. Like maybe the police should launch an investigation on the group home and figure out what's going on. I'd wouldn't be surprised if she's running away because of the abuse that is going on in the group home. It's pretty shady how the group home doesn't want to answer any questions. If they don't have nothing to hide, what's going on. I mean you don't just run away three times. I can only think of two reasons for that: abuse in the home or abuse outside the home (prostitution probably).
What I would suggest you do at this point is to track down some ministers and priests to look into this child's welfare. How is she being treated. The police are likely very angry with her. God only knows what is happening to her in that group home. Before you take on THE SYSTEM or speculate about the group home, you need some boots on the ground.
I mount air wars not ground wars. The battlefield has shifted and now you need the assistance of someone experienced in dealing with crisis pregnancies. Clearly Durham PD, Durham County, and that group home are covering up their own failures.
Don't rant. Use google and your cellphone to locate a church family to look out for these two children.
Gina, suggestions considered. I'm also doing a lot of research on runaways, child prostitution, and group homes.
On another note, this seemingly caring police chief put a bulk email filter on. I tried to send a reply back and this is what I got:
Your message to: jose.lopez@durhamnc.gov
was blocked by our Spam Firewall. The email you sent with the following subject has NOT BEEN DELIVERED:
Subject: Suggestions for the Investigation
Like wow....he don't wanna hear nothing from us ever again. Not even some suggestions. I'm going to try to send the same from a different email address. If not, I'll send a fax. If that doesn't work, I'll mail it in lol. But first I'm going to go to those church leaders.
Runaways from group homes are common. Doesn't necessarily mean there's something untoward going on there (doesn't mean there's not either.) We still don't know who actually has custody of this child and whether it's physical or legal (yeah, those are two different things.) Given that she's not from the Durham area, it's not surprising that she's a habitual runaway. As I said, that's pretty common. Again, we can't base speculation on the group home on the fact that she runs. I've had kids run from perfectly good foster parents and group homes. They run because they don't want to be there, period.
Best bet, IMO is to contact the local CASA organization. They're court appointed special advocates for children. Even if she's not 'in the system' per se, they may take and interest in the case.
As I mentioned before, the fact that she's pregnant makes it difficult to keep her locked up, as they could do if she wasn't pregnant.
Although the information may not be available because the young lady is a juvenile, often the sources and causes of these types of runaway-from-group-home problems are tied into her family of origin.
This is not to say the group home can't be held more accountable, but without someone local who already knows her situation (if she is in legal custody of the state), it's going to be problematic getting someone to track her status closely.
She may be an abuse victim (at the group home), or she may be someone who just wants to go back to wherever she came from and keeps trying to get there.
If she has generated a lot of public (and out of town interest), it is likely she will pay for it in some way now that she is back in custody.
I am glad that the young lady has been found...
Thank you Gina for the air war that you waged on her behalf...
peace, Villager
I am very relieved. I also like how we all banded together to look out for this child. I hope when the dust settles we can send her a care package or notes - just so she knows that complete strangers do want to see her happy and healthy. It might be more than what she's received so far in her life and could help her have a vision for herself.
Great job on this Gina! I have a colleague in Durham and I will get him involved in this.
Has anyone had any luck locating an NC church that would advocate for Tekenya?
@lormarie how many churches have you trd to contact? what was theirresponse?
WARNING THIS THREAD IS ABOUT TEKENYA WOOTEN. OFF TOPIC COMMENTS WILL BE DELETED. REPEAT OFFENDERS WILL BE BANNED.
Its ridiculous that I have to cme off of my weekend blog embargo to state the obvious.
Stay on topic or just do what thousands of other WAOD readers... LURK!
Four so far. No response yet. I think I'll go beyond churches though.
Great job Gina.
You do know if you hadn't said anything, this would just be another child who slipped through the cracks. The police officers who noticed her wandering the streets this time, would have noted her as just another truant and not given her a second thought.
At least now she'll have some aid and care.
I am in contact with one church in Durham. They are working on this as of Friday evening. I will update as soon as I hear something.
As-salaam alaykum Gina,
Thank YOU for making us aware. Tekenya was likely found because of the attenton you organized.
Maryam
Looking forward to updates. I hope we can all help to somehow make things a little better for Tekenya and her unborn child.
I just found out yesterday that one of my email pen pals (for the last 6 years) is a member of one of the churches I contacted. She said that she'd be able to speak with someone directly after receiving info. So I sent links from this blog, Electronic Village, and the actual email I sent to the church. I'll let you all know what happens ASAP.
Not trying to hijack this thread but I didn't quite know where else on this blog to mention this. Nationalism is rising all across Europe From the BNP in England to Jean Marie Le Pen in France. Those are only two countries. I've been very concerned about how this is affecting black women in Europe. Some of the stories I'm hearing from black women over there aren't good. If anyone would like for me to keep them posted on what I find, I'd be willing to. I personally would like to stand in solidarity with black women around the world.
What makes anyone think that the "Church" will want to be involved in this young pregnant girl's life? There are several large black churches in the area; if they were worth their salt they would have already been involved.
Where are Tekenya's parent's or relatives? What about the parents or relative's of the GROWN "man-child" who fathered her baby?
I'm looking into other group homes to where the girl could be transferred that may be able to better serve her and her unborn child. I wish I knew people in Durham's CFSA, but I don't.
You are making a great point BlkSeagoat which is why I'll be moving beyond churches.
I'm so glad that she has been found. One thing that I want to say to everyone is that if you are going to advocate for this, do it at the STATE level, where all the policies and regulations that have staff's hands tied and not always have the best interest of the child in mind.
I worked with kids that have emotional, mental and behavioral in residential and group home facilities for over 5 years. I can only tell you about NY state but it could be the same for a lot of states.
The police aren't going to be too upset with her. This is something that is common and part of their jobs (pregnant girls running away unfortunately and sadly is more common than one thinks). When a child AWOLs (that's what's it called here) the police are automatically notified, along with social workers, clinicians, parents (if involved), and whoever else.
Don't know what the conditions are in this group home, but sometimes staff's hands are tied as one reader said. In NY we have a STOP/ Non-STOP policy. Most children aren't on STOP. STOP means that mostly due to age or mental reasons the children can be placed into a physical hold/restraint to prevent them from leaving. She's pregnant, if they do holds, she can only be placed into a special type of hold until she's at a certain time in the pregnancy. After that no holds. You can try to block the door, but in most group homes there is more than one way out and depending on how many staff you got on at the time, not everyone can block them. Plus you can block, but then there is also the chance they she may become physically violent (which is a 80% chance, seriously) with you. If you then decided to put your hands on her for that depending on facility/agency/state rules (and they can all say different things which is a pain also), the staff could be out of a job.
Also she has a history of running. Sometimes if there is a history of running, the agency will decide that its okay to let that child go because the child will cause more chaos and damage to the staff and other children in placement if they try to make them stay.
Beyond staff doing their job, sometimes the kids in a home/facility will purposely cause a disruption for other kids in the house to AWOL. I have seen and heard it happen plenty of times. Staff doing their jobs, and two kids purposely get into it with each other and staff have to handle that, while the two kids are sneaking out the door (alarm or no alarm). Depending on what the staff to child ratio is also you may not be able to leave to go look for that child so all you can do is just notify the appropriate people.
Kids leave two reasons... They miss where they came from (home, foster home, etc.) or they dislike the group home because of the constraints (which is the most popular). These kids now have rules enforces on them, bedtimes, when they can eat, what activities they can do, how long they have to do morning hygiene, etc. Something that they aren't use to. They've always been able to do whatever they want. The children when they leave many times do not have anywhere specific to go. If they're from the local area they may try to go to family or friends. Normally the kids just want to be free from the constraints and be able to do what they want. If you ask, they'll even tell you this.
And unfortunately at times, you do have some staff (small percent) who just don't care, especially if they have had issues with a child and will just say if you want to leave, bounce.
Again, I have no clue what NC policies are as far as this, but from friends who have left to do the same work in different states, including NC, and came back... it's pretty much the same. Someone should, if she wasn't, should recommend to her social worker, CASA worker or law guardian that she needs to be placed into a Teen Pregnancy Group Home where she will get the services that she specifically needs at this time and to be around girls that are in the same situation.
Ok, I'm off my soapbox. It's just that as a line staff and former supervisor at a facility. I know what its like to be in those situations with 90% of the time having your hands tied. Especially when higher-ups want to make the rules but don't have to deal with the children. I left because I didn't like the direction I saw things going and then to realize that the system doesn't help these kids but looks at them as $$$ signs. It's sad when you can literally say that you have helped to raise some kids in the system, because you see them going in and out, in and out.
Nobody said limit the search to churches and y'all are not goign to turn this into a thread about the pitfalls and peril of the BLack church. People were wanting to do more and I suggested that they find a resource on the ground in Durham OUTSIDE of the governmental entities that are clearly having issues.
IT was a starting point. Churches are made up of people. One of those people may know of someone who knows of someone who knows of someone who may be able to help.
Finally, none of you . NONE. OF.YOU know what is going on on the ground in Durham and until such time as you have some firsthand information, everything is speculation and not helpful. If you are goign to help. Help. BUt don't turn this child into some type of mascot for everything that is wrong in the Amber Alert System, Churches, Social Services, etc.
Furthermore. Those of you taking additional steps should take your discussion off line. A blog is an inappropriate place to conduct social work. Especially in the case of an abused child. Feel free to organize yourselves over at the WAOD collective X website.
whataboutourdaughters.collectivex.com
TD, your comment was very informative and appreciated as a learning tool for those of us who have never had to deal with something like this. 12 years old and pregnant is an emergency situation if I have ever seen one.
I think a lot of us who have been involved in spreading the word about Tekenya and her situation only have her best interests at heart. We react from the heart and it is with great sadness and empathy for a child giving birth to another child that we are reacting.
I am looking here for information to pass to other readers. If enough people know about this situation there just might be someone out there who can actually do something about it. Every small piece to the puzzle is important at this point.
Wow, I emailed Jose Lopez, and got this same exact email, which makes me think that it was as he was drafting this automated response, not while he was writing to any of us individually. But, as soon as I found this out, she went missing again!
And, I was added to the Durham Police Department's spam list. I guess a lot of people were bugging them about Tekenya. Made me angry to be considered spam, but also warm inside to know so many people were concerened.