Trying to answer questions in multiple posts.
To my knowledge, arrival time for PCSO to BHCH is approximately 20 minutes give or take a few minutes based on distance. There was an article that said it took them 20 or 21 minutes to arrive.
While I agree it is possible that BHCH staff calling 911 within a couple of minutes of Serenity reportedly running may not have saved her, we don't know that for sure though. There have been plenty of other cases where children have survived extreme temps and weather unexpectedly. Had the staff been trained and acted accordingly, they too would have had people outside searching and maybe Serenity would have been found or have come out on her own. I get Serenity likely wouldn't have survived if she was outside due to the weather but I still fault BHCH for their lack of training, the staff response, no one wanting to lead the search and all the other stuff in the report. I don't fault staff for not leaving kids unattended because that is not permitted and likely could have brought harm to the other kids....hard to say for sure since we don't know their behaviors. When our kids ran, all kids were returned to the living area asap so it took less staff to supervise and left at least one staff outside looking until the on-call staff arrived. We called the police within a couple minutes...we called our on-call clinical team person so they could come in, call others in, alert parents and workers, then we called 911. We didn't have a lot of places for residents to hide and typically saw them run outside so it was rare that we had to search inside. Even when we did though, it didn't take long. I know hindsight is 20/20 but I still feel BHCH's response should have been better. I know that even if everyone did their jobs accurately that it is possible that Serenity could still have died due to the weather but to me it would be easier to accept had they followed up-to-date protocols. How that wasn't updated is beyond me, ours was reviewed regularly and DSS had a say in it too. Plus, even without training, there should have been a step-by-step manual available to all staff in each living area. We had to have ER procedures bundles at all staff desks..that was checked during inspections, license renewals and such. We got no info about that in the reports we saw. I have zero doubts that BHCH had other things they had to correct that the public didn't get to see.
I have said before where I worked we couldn't follow residents that ran once they left center property. At that point it was a police issue. LE response time varied from 15 minutes to 30+ all depending on where officers were and what else was going in in my city. I live in SD and the placement I worked at was located in a city. Our old building was 5-10 min from the police station and arrival times still varied. Being in town does increase the risk of creeps but it also gives kids access to stores and such to get out of the weather. Our kids that ran got plenty of help from strangers too. We never delayed calling 911 for a resident running away. I am guessing that BHCH is located where it is because someone donated land, the land was cheap, or that is where they got permission to be. My program struggle to find a location for our new building due to land cost, city permits/approval, etc and we had multiple meetings because the neighborhood we were by didn't want "those kids" in their area.
I worked for a PRTF (same as what BHCH is licensed as) for years. The program I worked for started as a group home. Once we became a PRTF, the focus was more on kids getting treatment for trauma, mental health, and behavioral issues not just a holding place like some group homes are. We always did that stuff but as a group home, we also took in kids temporarily that were moving from placement to placement, waiting for a foster home to open, etc. As a PRTF, some of our policies, procedures, and structure changed too. All kids admitted to our program had diagnosed issues - some from abuse and neglect, some organic, but we also treated kids with a variety of mental health issues and behavioral issues. There is an admission process and tons of information is gathered through that. So staff was well aware of triggers, run risks, behaviors, interventions and such for each resident. These placements are supposed to be a safe place for youth to get in-patient treatment via therapy (therapist, psychologist, and psychiatrist all involved), therapeutic groups, learn appropriate coping skills and behaviors, learn to follow center rules and structure, follow staff instructions, attend school regularly, learn interpersonal skills, learn responsibility, etc. My program did a lot with independent living skills with our older clients too. We had kids placed by DSS, DOC, the school district referred them, parents placed them, and doctor/psychologist referrals too.
Where I worked, we never slacked on training...that is how places get shut down and kids are endangered. As staff, the main responsibility is to keep kids safe...training is part of that. Supervision is huge! Knowing which kids pose a run risk, staff having at least brief knowledge of a resident's history, their behaviors and issues, what helps de-escalate a particular resident, and such all play into staff being able to do their job appropriately and effectively. There is zero room for complacency in a PRTF, imo! Kids are impulsive, especially those with issues. Staff are to be "proactive not reactive" and "hypervigilant" according to my former director. We always teased him because we heard it so much but there is great truth to those phrases. We had 50 minimum hours of training required each year. We had monthly trainings, refreshers at the end of staff meetings, quizzes/tests, and sometimes outside trainings. Everything was documented and kept in employee files. I don't see how that wasn't caught either. The licensing board and accreditation board people went through personnel files to check training hours.
Kids run from treatments and I won't deny that. We had kids run many times over the years. Staff and facilities can only do so much. Even locked facilities have kids that run. Some kids will do almost whatever it takes to run. However, there are things that can and should be done to limit the amount of runaways. We operated at a 1:5 ratio during waking hours and there was a supervisor that floated between the units. If a resident was on run risk or run procedures, the supervision was increased. I think I listed those in previous comments.
Children's Home Society (non-profit BHCH is part of) as a whole has a great reputation SD and the surrounding area. The Sioux Falls Children's Home also has a good rep. I thought BHCH did too. I admit though that a lot of my knowledge is older with regards to people who worked at SFCH a few years ago. It was ran similiar to the program I worked for but they work with 4-14 year olds and we had 10-18. We had kids from SFCH and BHCH and they didn't say much bad...many were sad about leaving those programs. It is possible that changes in programs happened with Colson or maybe due to funding changes. SD went through a few changes with regards to trying to treat kids as out patient and more community based than in patient facilities so that all may have played a role too. I am not sure. At any rate, those reports upset me greatly! BHCH Administration and staff knew better and should do better. Pay and hours aren't great in these types of jobs but don't do the job if you can't care for the kids appropriately! It is a tough job emotionally but also physically at times but it is also a rewarding job. You also get to have a lot of fun activities with the kids. I miss working with the kids.
As far as Colson goes, his words irritate me to say the least. As the Executive Director of CHS, I would expect him to be more well spoken like he was in other footage I have seen. As staff, we were very careful to not blame residents...we did have them take responsibility for their action and choice but not put them down. I felt his statements were blaming and an attempt at spinning. Which just made it worse, imo. Yes, Serenity ran (if she did indeed run), but again staff had responsibilities too and they didn't fulfill them, imo.
When this first was reported, I expected Serenity to be found shortly. I expected that we would learn staff did their job. I know that my thoughts were skewed based on my experiences in the field and at both placements I worked at. I didn't see red flags at first. How wrong I was and poor Serenity is still missing
