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San Jose Mercury
Associated Press
July 21, 2005
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Two U.S. teenagers who fled a treatment center for troubled youths in southwestern Jamaica as Hurricane Emily sideswiped the island have been found, the center's director said Wednesday.
Tyler Stout, 16, of Texas, and Christopher John Chuchua, 18, of California, ran away Saturday night from the Tranquility Bay boarding school in the seaside town of Calabash Bay, about 90 miles (144 kilometers) west of Kingston.
The students were found after a search that included help from Jamaica police and a private investigator, Tranquility Bay director Jay Kay said in a statement. The school did not disclose details about how or where the teens were located.
"We're extremely relieved to have these boys back in safe hands," Kay said. "It's been a trying few days, to say the least."
The boys, who had planned the breakout beforehand, escaped the boarding school during a heavy downpour as the center's staff prepared to move students to a safer part of the campus as the hurricane approached, he said. They face expulsion for running away.
The school is a large, gated compounded with bars on the windows and security guards at the entrance. It opened in 1997 and has about 200 students, mostly from the United States.
Reports that some youths were being abused prompted authorities to shut down a WWASPS-run school in Mexico last year. Similar complaints were made against another WWASPS-run school in Costa Rica, which was forced to close in 2003 after two student rebellions.