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Group home for kids will close

The decision is made after two teens run away from the controversial Oldsmar home, which opened last week.

By TAMARA EL-KHOURY
Published December 1, 2005

OLDSMAR - The commotion caused by two runaway teens Tuesday night led a nonprofit social services agency to decide to close a controversial group home just a week after it opened.

The decision to close the home for six foster kids was made by Lee Scharrer, executive director of Gift of Life, the social services organization running the home.

Scharrer had previously assured nearby residents that the home would not disrupt the neighborhood along Shore Drive, but he said that's what happened Tuesday night.

"That these two teens left isn't that big a surprise," he said Wednesday. "It's that their leaving created far more commotion in the neighborhood than I - and I know the neighbors - are comfortable with."

At 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office dispatched 13 patrol units, a helicopter and a police dog to look for a 17-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl who ran from their new Shore Drive home.

After four hours, the pair was spotted by WFLA-Ch. 8 news photographer Todd Davis, who was on his way to Tampa to file a story about the search.

Davis called authorities and followed the teens to a residential area east of Double Branch Road and Hillsborough Avenue, said a Sheriff's Office spokesman. They were found about 5 miles from the foster home.

The home has been a hot topic among Oldsmar residents, especially those living on Shore Drive, ever since they learned that six foster kids would be living in the neighborhood. Last month, opponents to the home gave the City Council a petition saying they feared for the safety of their children.

Scharrer told residents that the children placed in the home would not have criminal backgrounds. The kids were taken from abusive or neglectful homes and put into foster care.

Scharrer told residents that the kids would be under 24-hour supervision by a trained staff.

On Tuesday night, the home was staffed with a nurse and three others, Scharrer said. But the home is not a lock-down facility. Staffers are legally restrained from physically restraining minors to keep them from leaving the home, he said.

A staffer was working with the 15-year-old girl, who didn't like being told "no" and took off running, followed by the 17-year-old boy, Scharrer said.

The four-hour search kept neighbors awake. Even neighbors who had opposed the home helped comb the area for the missing teens, Scharrer said.

"Everybody was, "Let's help find these kids.' That was the atmosphere," said Shore Drive resident Sandy Sears, who said she brought out a flashlight and looked for the kids near the water.

Former Oldsmar Mayor and Shore Drive resident Jerry Provenzano said he didn't know what all the buzz was about until he watched the news the next morning. About 9:30 p.m., he said, police cars, searchlights and a helicopter came to the neighborhood.

"We didn't know what it was," he said. "We didn't know if it was an escaped felon."

Many people will be relieved to hear that the group home is shutting down, Provenzano said.

"I think they're going to see this as a vindication of their concerns from the beginning," he said.

Scharrer didn't know where the six foster kids at the home will go just yet. The group home will close once he finds a foster or group home for each kid. Scharrer said he is is working with the landlord to be relieved of his lease.

Scharrer said the response to the runaways was more intense than he had experienced before.

The level of response to reports of runaways depends on the circumstances, said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Jim Bordner. These teens were considered missing and endangered because they were both on medication, Bordner said, so deputies were sent to find them as quickly as possible.

Scharrer didn't question the Sheriff's Office's actions, but he said the situation caused too much stress for a neighborhood.

"That level of response is inconsistent of my promise that we would not be a problem to the neighborhood," Scharrer said. "We were a problem for the neighborhood last night."

[Last modified December 1, 2005, 01:07:16]