Glenda Anderson and Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporters
POLICE ARE now on the look out for several girls who may have absconded from one of the island's Government-run places of safety more than a month ago.
Authorities were made aware of the situation after the Constant Spring police picked up two of the girls who were found walking along Mary Brown's Corner in Constant Spring late Sunday night.
An officer from the Constant Spring Police Station confirmed that the girls ran away from the Granville Place of Safety in Trelawny and were on their way to the Wortley Home on Constant Spring Road.
At least one parent, who requested anonymity, is concerned that her child, who was sent to the home to be 'reformed', was allowed to abscond and neither she nor the police was notified when her daughter allegedly went missing in early October.
Orlyne Martin, manager of the Wortley Home, told The Gleaner that the two girls who were picked up are currently before the courts. According to one of the young girls, more than 20 of them had left the Trelawny-based place of safety at the same time. While not able to confirm the number, the Constant Spring police said sources at the Family Court revealed that the girls were among a group that escaped from the state-owned facility. "I heard that some girls had escaped but couldn't tell you the number ... but it was unusual."
Mrs. Martin also said she heard the rumours regarding the high number of escapees but could not confirm or deny the allegations. Additionally, an officer from the Trelawny Police Headquarters in Falmouth told The Gleaner that the rumoured number is not far-fetched. The officer explained that whenever the girls escape from the home, the police receive a notification from the facility, but they are never notified if the girls return. Sergeant Ernest Madden, sub-officer at the Trelawny Police Station, said they received several notifications that girls had absconded between last month and early November.
Sergeant Madden said a notification with five names was received on November 6, and at least three names were received for October.
A HISTORY OF FLIGHT
"There is a history of them running away - I don't know what is happening," he said.
But Eunice Scott Shaw, superintendent at Granville Place of Safety, strongly denied the possibility that such a large number could have escaped.
"We have never had that many girls leaving at one time ... that would warrant a national inquiry," she said.
Superintendent Scott Shaw said this would have been picked up almost immediately as the home had a small population which fluctuated between 58 and 60 girls at intervals.
