A'Kiera Burrell Sledge Found Safe

A'Kiera Burrell Sledge, the teen who went missing in Kansas City, Missouri sometime during the last week of November, was finally found over the weekend by her mom. This is the best news I've heard in a long time concerning a missing child. Especially a missing child whose status as such went largely unnoticed and unheralded by the venues we count on to report these matters and update the public concerning any progress made in searches. In fact, the media has not reported that she is safe; that is why I am unable to include a link to reference this information. I checked Facebook and found the news, and heaved a sigh of relief.

This brings me to something that is really quite disturbing. When A'Kiera first disappeared, she was not living at home, and those charged with her care did not bother to inform law  enforcement or her parents. When they finally did inform A'Kiera's mother, in order to avoid an awkward moment during a scheduled meeting with mother and daughter, as daughter was AWOL, they had no information except that they thought she might have "run away" with another teenage girl. To date, the name and picture of the other young lady has yet to surface in the news. It would appear, sadly, that no one is looking for her. In and of itself, that is an injustice beyond comprehension, but I will save that for another post. A'Kiera got a small amount of coverage from local media sources, but law enforcement in Kansas City Missouri did nothing but impede the process of finding her by refusing to take a missing persons report from her mom and never giving A'Kiera's information to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for circulation. Crittenton Childrens Center, in Kansas City, Missouri, from where A'Kiera initially disappeared, was first to drop the ball by not reporting her absence to law enforcement. The court apparently wasn't too concerned, either. When A'Kiera's mother found out and tried to get the police involved, they literally wouldn't cooperate. Much of the information circulating about this whole situation was unofficial.

It is a miracle and a blessing that A'Kiera made it home safely, but suppose she had ended up somewhere across the country, outside of the circle of friends and Facebook friends within her local community? Getting found, in a case like that, could depend upon mass photo circulation. Also, why would a police department in another state even begin to suspect that a missing child is truly missing when no Amber Alert, or other alert, has been issued? Since Crittenton Childrens Center refused to turn over the twenty-four hour surveillance video from last day A'Kiera was seen on the campus, an Amber Alert would have been difficult to issue, since no involved vehicle could be identified without viewing the video footage. But.....Kansas City Police were okay with not having the surveillance video. This is no way to conduct an investigation and find a missing child. It is also unacceptable.

Any business advertising in any of the local media or major media should be aware that many of us care a lot more about children who disappear than we do about the drivel that normally gets covered in the news. I honestly don't care about Governor Brownback's latest hypocritical and fake public prayer performance, or about tractor pulls, or about the latest moron to get arrested for shoplifting or hiding ten garbage bags of homegrown in his garage. All that stuff really isn't important to me. If I happen to read it, I read it, but I am not going to go out of my way to look for it. I am, however; going to go out of my way to find out if a missing child has been located, and to see if there is anywhere that I can circulate the pictures and information, in order to get that child home, safe, as soon as possible. That's what's important to me, and it is a big disappointment that none of the newspapers or their online counterparts prioritize missing children, particularly ethnic missing children, at all. Seriously, advertisers; I hope you are listening.