Right now police officers in the West are on high alert for 3 of 11 girls who escaped from the Youth Hostel yesterday. Throughout the day, Youth Hostel personnel and the police were able to find 8 of the girls so far. This evening 4 were found in Benque and another 4 were found in Belmopan. Today we spoke to the Deputy Director of the Community Rehabilitation Department over the phone and she explained how the girls escaped on Sunday evening.
Maureen Williams, Dep. Dir., Community Rehab. Dept.
"My understanding of the whole situation is that the children were in their building. Usually at that time in the evening, they are in their building, they are getting ready to take their baths and getting ready for the night."
Courtney Weatherburne
"This is what time?"
Maureen Williams, Dep. Dir., Community Rehab. Dept.
"Shortly before 6pm, about 5:45pm. They had already eaten and they were getting ready to bed down essentially for the night. For some reason the door was unlocked and they left. My understanding is that they were around the compound, 3 of them went over the fence and the rest of them went through the gate. That is my understanding. The gate was unlock. It wasn't open, but it was unlock and you are right, that is against protocols. Because for us the gate should have been locked, but for whatever reason that did not happened."
Courtney Weatherburne
"Now in terms of the 3 who jumped the fence, aren't there security personnel or officers around the clock to observe and to make sure that everything is safe and no one jump the fence?"
Maureen Williams, Dep. Dir., Community Rehab. Dept.
"There is one security officer on duty. He was doing something else, he was actually helping out with the boys' dorm when this occurred. So when he came out and saw that 2 of the girls were already pretty much over the fence."
Now, this is not the first time these troubled girls have run away from the hostel or at least tried to escape. Viewers will also remember the horrible November 2015 Youth Hostel fire that claimed the life of 3 girls. But these incidents all have one thing in common - a failure or break down in protocol. Williams explained what has been done to address these key issues but she also highlighted the importance of staff involvement and vigilance.
Maureen Williams, Dep. Dir., Community Rehab. Dept.
"There's been lots of improvements at the Youth Hostel, we've done several things. There is continuous training, every month we have training at the Youth Hostel for all staff. We look the standard operating procedures. There has been training with all staff to look at what new approaches, interaction skill in dealing with these children. We've look at some additional skills. There's been lots of training that we've done with staff to be able to better handle the children that we have. We've had some infrastructural improvement in terms of the fence. It's essentially almost a brand new fence. We have radios. There are 7 radios on the compound distributed we figure in the best manner in terms of supervisors, duty officers having access to our radios. So we've been doing lots of the things that we need to do, but what it boils down to you are right in terms of people not following through."
As you heard, there was also a breakdown in protocol in this case because the gate should have been locked a security guard should have been on guard. Williams says there will be disciplinary action against staff. We will have an update on whether all the girls have been found.
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