43
Warren superintendent says district couldn’t locate disabled girl
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Warren City Schools superintendent says the visually impaired 15-year-old girl police found in unclean conditions Tuesday in a Beck Street Southeast home last attended Warren City Schools about 18 months ago.
Steve Chiaro, Warren superintendent, said he could not confirm that the girl was visually impaired when she attended eighth grade during the 2012-13 school year. But he said school officials exhausted all options to find her when she didn’t show up to attend her ninth-grade year at Warren G. Harding High School last year.
Police were called to the home Tuesday afternoon by a Youngstown woman who was concerned about the girl. Police said the girl had feces on her pants, and the house was in deplorable condition. Police said they didn’t know if the feces on the girl was human or from a dog in the house.
Police, who called Trumbull County Children Services after arriving at the house, said the girl had not bathed in two weeks. Children Services was planning to develop a safety plan for the girl and conduct its own investigation, police said.
Police talked with a 61-year-old resident of the home. The girl’s mother, 34, who also said she lived there, arrived later and went to Children Services with her daughter.
A neighbor went to the home Tuesday to assist while police were there.
“She was not covered in feces, and there was food,” the neighbor said. The girl’s shirt was dirty because she’s 95 percent blind and because her house is dirty, but a friend brings food to the house every other day, she said. The neighbor said the people caring for the girl have said the reason the girl hasn’t been to school is because there is no school in this area for blind children, and schools elsewhere are too expensive.
But Chiaro said Warren has a braille typist who can translate any textbook or other materials, and the district has a full-time vision teacher who works with visually-impaired students.
When the girl did not come to school to start her freshman year last year, one of the district’s 11 school-community liaisons attempted to locate her by going to her home, but the house was vacant.
The worker also sent letters to the residence and used phone numbers that were available to no avail. The last step was to consult with a juvenile prosecutor in September 2013, but that also didn’t identify the girl’s location, Chiaro said.
“That’s where it gets hung up,” Chiaro said, adding, “I’m upset for the child.”
Now that the child has been found, Chiaro said he expects Children Services to put a safety plan into place to enable the girl to return to school.
“The needs of our students who are visually impaired are definitely met in Warren City Schools,” Chiaro said.