9,000 children reported missing in five years

The principal of a Corporate Area high school is calling for greater parental involvement to prevent incidents of teenage girls running away from school.

The senior administrator, whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of students, said that seven of his female students were reported missing in the last few years, two of whom are yet to be located. Another child was sexually assaulted.

"Based on what I have seen, parental influence is poor. There are some parents who are more keen on buying the long hair and fingernails and are not willing to invest in their children and it is unfortunate because a lot of these children have potential," the principal said.

The head teacher also told THE STAR that some of the female students who ran away did so because of the influence of older men who gave them affection they often did not receive at home.

"A lot of these girls are from poor backgrounds, without fathers or father figures, and they are not getting any attention at home so when a man with a little bit a money come and make them feel special and show them things, they are not used to it, is not that hard to understand why some of them run away," said the principal.

This was the case of a 16-year-old child who ran away from home three times to her 19-year-old boyfriend's house. The girl was also impregnated by her boyfriend, but thereafter found herself in a difficult situation after her boyfriend was shot and killed four months into her pregnancy.

"Before she ran away, she was quite comfortable because there are certain accommodations that she has that I know most children don't have. Is only that sometimes I have to work in the nights and her daddy have to work in the nights as well -- not throughout the nights but like up to seven o'clock. So when they come from school, they don't see us, which gave her time to do whatever she wanted to do," the mother told THE STAR. She said that it was not easy dealing with the fact that their daughter ran away from home.

"Each time it was hard and stressful, and unless you've been through it, you can't understand that feeling of not knowing where your child is or the worry and pain that comes with it," the mother said.

According to the Jamaica Constabulary Force's statistics, between 2015 and 2020 more than 9,000 children were reported missing across the country. Most of the children returned home.