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Sunday, January 26, 2003

By Mackenzie Carpenter, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Nija Britt is officially "incorrigible."

That means she's a dependent child in the state's care because her parents couldn't control her, not because she was abused or neglected.

It wasn't always that way. Before adolescence, Nija attended a Christian school in the Philadelphia area, was on the drill team and got excellent grades.

But once she hit puberty, said her mother, Arlene Falcon, and her aunt, Melissa Williams, Nija "started hanging around with the wrong crowd, doing drugs and getting in trouble."

That led to three years of running away from her own home and from various group homes she was placed in, and eventually, to a nine-month stay last year in a locked, private facility in Texas for children with mental health problems.

Even though she was doing well in Texas, Nija was released late last year to come back to Pennsylvania, where she was put in an unlocked group home on Termon Avenue on the North Side, run by Three Rivers Youth, a private, nonprofit social service agency.

The thinking was that the 15-year-old would be less likely to run away in Pittsburgh, a city she didn't know.

The thinking was wrong. She would run away six times before disappearing for good.

A log her mother provided the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette show-ed Nija's problems began almost immediately, which child advocates say isn't unusual after a transfer. The stress of being relocated can send a child back into old patterns of behavior.

A few weeks after her arrival, Nija started refusing her medications, which she was taking to control what her aunt called "an explosive personality. She's a sweet girl, but she has trouble with anger."

She then failed to return home from Oliver High School. Two days later, Nija showed up at the home of an off-duty staff member, who promptly escorted her back to the group home.

That evening, though, Nija ran out the basement door, only to return two days later, claiming she had "smoked weed" and drunk "151" rum.

"She ran even though she knew she was coming home for a holiday, to spend Thanksgiving with us," said Falcon, her voice breaking slightly. "That made it really horrible."

After this episode, staffers did what they frequently do in these cases: They took away Nija's shoes and clothing and prohibited her from going to school that morning.

But Nija ran anyway, out the door into cold, rainy weather, wearing pajamas, slippers, and another girl's coat. A staffer chased her down the street while a second pursued her in a van. She was caught, but that night, she ran again, dressed in other residents' clothing. A staffer glimpsed her on Federal Street and called the police. Nija showed up at 5 a.m. the next day.

At that point, Three Rivers decided that Nija was too much to handle, so they instigated procedures that would give the Philadelphia Department of Human Services 30 days to place her somewhere else.

The next evening, Nija ran away again.

Two days later, Nija appeared at the group home just before 4 a.m. Later that morning, she told staffers she would meet with a crisis team, but an hour later, she ran out of the building once more, without a coat or socks and in slippers.

A staffer chased her down and found her hiding behind a vacant house. The staffer, who was driving his own car, followed her down the street and tried to persuade her to come back. Instead, she boarded a bus, which police intercepted. At that point, staffers took Nija, with her consent, to the emergency room at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic.

According to the log provided to Falcon, Nija "accepted responsibility for her behavior, admitted that she had made bad decisions and agreed to resume her medications." She was then returned to the group home on Termon Street.

The next day, a staffer accompanied Nija to Oliver High School, and into the principal's office to sign her back in. A school security guard escorted her to her class.

When staff arrived to pick her up at the end of the day, Nija wasn't there.

She hasn't been heard from since.