By Ari De La Cruz
After more than three months of a regional manhunt, Avonte Oquendo is still missing. The New York Police Department, along with volunteers, have been searching for the 14-year-old autistic teen since he disappeared October 4 from a school in Long Island City. A reward of $95,000 has been offered for tips which result in his return. Police are skeptical. “We are not hopeful we’re going to find this young man alive,” said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly in a statement to reporters.
Oquendo ran out of his school and surveillance video showed that there was no one watching him. At one point, there was an increased interest on searching the subway because of his love for trains. The Metropolitan Transit Authority asked commuters to be on the alert, offering details of Oquendo’s appearance. It was hard to live or work in New York City and not have seen a poster of the young man’s face, with the words “Missing.”
The fact that Oquendo is autistic and is unable to communicate made the rescue efforts more difficult for those out to return him to his family. “Autistic children are hard to read,” said Melanie Santos, 44, the mother of an autistic teen. “You don’t know what they are going to do next, and they have to be watched. Just like any kid. The fact that Oquendo’s autism caused him to be mute, means that there’s no place for him out there in the world to be walking freely. And unsupervised.”
Could this have been prevented?
Dennis Walcott, the chancellor of the Department of Education, has outlined protocols through memos to principals of schools around the city. The focus of these memos is safety in schools and emergency readiness if a case like that of Oquendo were to arise again. Walcott’s plans also include collaboration with the New York Police Department to have cameras, radios, and panic buttons at the schools disposal.
One of the greatest gaps in security with schools is that school files are not shared with officers, so they are not aware of who needs special attention. “Keeping away these files makes the school safety officers jobs much harder,” said officer Sam Espinal, 28, who lives in the Bronx. “They then don’t know who exactly needs special attention, and Avonte needed that.” School security guard Christopher Nelson, 34, agreed. “This case was just carelessness from the entire faculty,” he said. “Usually I back up those in my profession, but they were wrong in this case.”
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