ACTIVE SEARCH SD - Serenity Dennard, 9, Children’s Home Society, Pennington County, 3 Feb 2019

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Trudie said:
I am entitled to my opinion. You also don’t know my background.
IMO, security measures should have been in place that prevented the children leaving.
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There are facilities that prevent children from leaving. Home-like residential treatment is not one of those facilities. Everyone is totally aware of the circumstances when the children are placed there.

It is a place designed to be more like a home than a jail. It would not have been at all productive for myself or those I was with if we had been locked in. Obviously Serenity needed more than this but they likely didn't realize that until it was too late.

I hope that the employees are able to recover from this as well. Something like this can easily end in a suicide which would compound the tragedy.

I know her family will likely be tortured about whether Serenity suffered as well. It's just horrific. Sometimes you don't know a child is capable of doing something until they do it.

I hope everyone involved here gets the help they need. These facilities are too rare as it is, we can't lose the ones we have. Especially not when they are so highly rated.

It's just awful.
 
Steelslady said:
There are so many scenarios that could have lead to Serenity going into this home. It could even be behavior at school that lead to this, for all we know. I just don't see, though, how a 9 year old could have made a planned escape with a family member- she would have had to coerce another girl to make a run for it, like in this case where that other girl took off first, and even then, LE would manage to get that out of her eventually if that had been planned.

I would be very shocked if that happened. However, I do worry about any SO's in the area. That's something we haven't brought up yet.
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I'm curious about what the traffic patterns were along that road?
 
Amstorrs said:
I very much disagree. While every facility is different, and different states have different regulations, that would never ever happen here in CT. I’ve worked in this field as have many of my friends and coworkers, and while burn out is a very real thing, it’s not allowed to get to this extent. There are multiple things put into place to prevent such a thing, such as extended paid vacations for direct support professionals, capped maximum work hours, etc. Also, the pay here for a job like that starts at $14.75 an hour, and that’s entry level no/limited experience, so while it’s not great pay, it’s not terrible either.

Also, in my state, any medical decisions are made under the direction of a nurse with many many hours of medical training for the employees themselves.
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CT has the highest rate of in custody youth deaths.
 
doodles1211 said:
Do you mean this??

Reported timelines on Serenity Dennard's disappearance are confusing
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Very helpful. Thanks to both you and @aegarner1.

From the link:

Sunday, Feb. 3

10:45 a.m.
Serenity June Dennard, 9, runs out of gym at Black Hills Children's Home. Two staffers and four children were in the gym. One child "created a disturbance" and occupied one of the staffers. When Serenity ran off, the other staffer was occupied with the two other children.

11:00 a.m.
Serenity is last seen by the cattle guard on the driveway by "an individual dropping off another child" at the home.

12:26 p.m.
911 call placed to Pennington County dispatch.

12:46 p.m.
First deputy arrives on scene.

1:16 p.m.
Several deputies on scene. Lt. Sheriff Kraig Wood calls authorizes mobilization of Pennington County Search and Rescue teams that builds through the afternoon into a 35 person search effort.

(cont at the link)
 
Trudie said:
I am entitled to my opinion. You also don’t know my background.
IMO, security measures should have been in place that prevented the children leaving.
Click to expand...

What measures do you suggest? This isn't a prison. It is a residential center. If a child is needing to be locked up, I'm sure there are other types of facilities available to that child.
 
When I taught school, a little boy was taken from his Grandmother, she had dementia. The Mother was a drug addict. The boy ran away from foster care to live with his Mother, who hid him, because she wanted to keep him with her.

So, I am hopeful that this is a similar situation. That this little girl ran to a place she wanted to be, while not great, is at least warm.
 
Okay, so it was an individual dropping off a child that saw Serenity at the cattle guard. But, what happened to the couple cutting wood in Foster Gulch - why isn't that on the timeline?

Reported timelines on Serenity Dennard's disappearance are confusing
11:00 a.m.
Serenity is last seen by the cattle guard on the driveway by "an individual dropping off another child" at the home.

Search for missing girl becomes recovery effort
On Tuesday, the sheriff's office said authorities had located the couple and that they helped establish a clearer timeline of Serenity's disappearance.

And this is wrong also?
Search for missing girl transitions into recovery effort - KNBN NewsCenter1
She was last seen at 11:26 a.m. on South Rockerville Road.
 
aegarner1 said:
I have no clue anymore
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:(

Maybe the couple cutting wood didn't see her? BBM

Pennington County Sheriff's Office
Investigators looking for couple who saw missing child Pennington County, SD – Investigators with the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office want to speak with the couple who last saw the missing nine year old near the Black Hills Children’s Home. A male and female were cutting wood in the area of Foster Gulch and South Rockerville Road and spoke with Children’s Home staff on Sunday, February 3, 2019, between 10:30 am and 11:30 am. They are described as being in their late 20s or early 30s and driving a pickup truck. We believe these two may have been the last to see Serenity Dennard.
 
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