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Ivy Ridge students run away
March 19, 2007
By Dana Hendrickson
Police went door to door, even
buggy to buggy, looking for the missing boys.
"If you see them, let someone
know," a trooper said.
Early Monday morning, four students
ran free from the Academy at Ivy Ridge, a school for troubled teens.
Tom Nichols, Academy at Ivy Ridge
Spokesperson, said, "These individuals forced their way out of the
building and the dorm parents tried to stop them and there were just
a few individuals who managed to get outside the building."
Officials said the students may
have split up, and now they could be just about anywhere.
Nichols said, "This is just four
individuals who are used to doing whatever they wanted to and they
had to live by our rules at Ivy Ridge."
Police are treating this as a
missing persons case and say the only rules the students have broken
are the schools.
Tom Nichols said, "Our first job is
to find these young men and to get them back into where it’s warm
and where it is safe and then we will work on other things after
that."
Boarding school officials count
three other times they've faced this problem before. The most noted
is in May of 2005, when 40 students were expelled for breaking free.
And people who live nearby said they are always concerned for the
safety of the students.
Bob Leroux, an Ogdensburg resident,
said, "I always suspect students at Ivy Ridge are unfamiliar with
the weather and the North Country and to leave the campus without
clothing is to put them in danger of hypothermia."
For now, police said they are
continuing their search until the boys return to their home away
from home.
If you have any information of the
boys whereabouts you are asked to call Ogdensburg State Police at
(315) 393-3350.
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