THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 23, 1994 TAG: 9410210361
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Ron Speer
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
A heart-wrenching story never made our papers. It should have.
The woman who told me about it was crying, fearful that it will happen again and again because nobody in power in Dare County seems to care.
Here's the story she passed on to me, between sobs:
Dare County currently has 42 juveniles who need foster homes. But only eight families have agreed to provide foster homes, leaving nearly three dozen kids without a place to go near home since there are no group homes for juveniles in the area.
Social workers have to drive the troubled kids to distant places where there are group homes, and leave them with strangers.
A 15-year-old was driven 300 miles to the west last week by a Dare County social worker taking him to a group home at Thomasville.
They arrived Monday night, Thomasville police said, and were accosted by a gunman in a parking lot. ``Give me your purse or I'll shoot your son!'' the gunman barked, according to the police report. The social worker handed him her purse. ``Give me the keys to the car, or I'll shoot YOU!'' he said.
When he tried to drive off in the county car, the hand-me-down vehicle from the sheriff's department, with more than 200,000 miles on it, wouldn't start.
``If it doesn't start I'll kill you,'' the gunman said. Finally he got it going and sped off, taking with him all the possessions of the 15-year-old, including a picture of his girl friend.
The juvenile was terrified. So was the social worker, but an even tougher task was ahead. She had to leave the traumatized boy with strangers before she flew home.
We missed that story. We HAVE had stories about things that will enrich the lives of the more fortunate among us - a million-dollar bike path, playgrounds, expanded facilities on Ice Plant Island . . .
But only Larry Wayne of radio WVOD told the story about the tragic trip that the social worker made. And other social workers are continuing to make such trips, in equally worn-out vhicles to equally tough neighborhoods.
I thought you would want to know about it. When the woman who heard Wayne's radio report found out the rest of the details, she felt she had to do something. She couldn't stop crying as she told me how bad it made her feel.
I felt like crying, too.
I checked with the social services people and found that a drive for foster homes will be held next month. But troubled teenagers are hard to place, so what is really needed are group homes so juveniles won't have to leave the area.
``We definitely need a group home in Dare County,'' said Steve Michael, attorney for the Department of Social Services. ``We've got social services people driving all over the state trying to place these kids, and it's just a matter of time until something happens.''
County Manager Terry Wheeler said better cars will be provided for the department soon when new cars are purchased for the sheriff's department. And he said there have been discussions about providing a group home for juveniles.
The home would have to be paid for with taxpayers' money, and it's a hard sell with the people who control public funds. Troubled juveniles don't have much political clout. Neither do social workers in a time and a place where ``welfare'' has become an ugly word.
Commissioners in most every Northeastern North Carolina county seem to worry more about young kids not praying in school than they do about young kids who don't have a safe place to live.
If we're going to pray, perhaps we ALL should check out Matthew 25:40.
``Whatever you do for the least of these brothers of mine, you do for me.''
KEYWORDS: FOSTER HOMES ROBBERY AUTO THEFT
DARE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES
by CNB