Escapes from KIDS of El Paso were uncommon but did occur. These attempts, called "copping out," led to severe consequences. Those who tried to leave were subjected to physical restraints that were punitive and painful. Despite this, some teenagers devised elaborate escape plans, including one instance where a teen on the first phase of treatment planned to murder his oldcomer and host family with a pair of scissors to escape. The KIDS building and the host homes that teens slept in at night were secure; however, there were many incidences of teens breaking through windows. Some teens also advanced to higher phases of treatment to gain more freedom before running away.
Below are three stories from KIDS of El Paso teens who attempted to leave unsuccessfully, in addition to reports published in El Paso newspapers about escapes from the KIDS of El Paso program.
Subjective Accounts
A Newcomer’s Story #1
I think I had been in there two years. I didn't want to hurt or kill myself, I just wanted OUT! I've never been a violent person, not aggressive, not even brave, so I spent a long time staring at that window, trying to work up the courage to punch through it. Then I just snapped.
The next thing I remember is looking at the sidewalk and the rocks below me. There was no grass, just the rocks they use in El Paso as landscaping. I have no idea how I thought I would survive. Somehow, I thought I'd just get up and run away. People grabbed me by the feet as the sound of the glass breaking woke them and pulled me back through the window.
I was sitting on the mattress that used to be in front of the door, looking at my finger. I had sliced it open on the glass. (Do you know your pinky looks hollow when you slice it open?) I did the only logical thing; I shoved it in my mouth. My host mom yelled at me how unsanitary that was and somehow got a towel around my hand.
We piled into the car and went to the emergency room, but I had no idea if the other girls had come with us or what happened. The doctor sewed up my finger and also my cheek. Unbeknownst to me, I had not only cut my finger, I cut my face, and somehow my knees as well. They gave me a local anesthetic for my face, so I was awake while the doctor was coming at my face, right by my eye, with the needle. I had to keep my hand elevated above my heart after that, and it was in a finger splint until it healed so I didn't accidentally bend my finger and rip the stitches.
It was very hard to write an M.I. that way, as it was my right hand, and I am right-handed. I would push the notebook up against the wall with my right forearm and try to write left-handed. I feel sorry for whoever had to try and read that! I also had to sit on the floor in group and rest my arm on the chair.
That's about it.
A Newcomer’s Story #2
It was a normal day in the program (whatever normal was), but as we headed towards the host home that evening, we were told that our 2nd Phasers family had purchased a new home and that we would be staying there. Needless to say, when we got there, the home was far from passing all the KIDS security host-home standards!
We finished writing in our MI’s and headed for the showers. The first thing I noticed as we entered the bathroom was that the shower curtain was dark brown and not transparent/clear as required. Eventually, after all the other girls had showered, it was finally my turn. I stepped into the shower, closed the curtain behind me, and noticed NO LOCK on the window! I stood there in the shower, panicking for about five minutes; when I cracked open the window, I punched my hand through the small opening and realized there was no screen either. Let me say, at this point, I really started to panic!!! I knew that was my only opportunity to blow that Popsicle stand! I stepped out of the shower and pretended that I had to pee, sat on the toilet for a minute (to build up my nerve), got back in the shower, and jumped right out that window, butt-naked!
I can’t explain the feeling of JOY (FREEDOM) I felt as I was running through the park behind the host home, butt-naked...with my arms in the air and THE BIGGEST smile on my face ever!
That is just the beginning of the happy story…because it became a nightmare after that!
After taking a second to think about what I had just done, I realized I was alone, and my family would never take this “druggy” back (being as brain-washed as I was); I knew my mother couldn’t take me in either because my brother was still in the program. I thought about…first going into a canal or something and sleeping for days; because I was always exhausted in that damned program, and then I considered killing myself.
I knew I had to run and hide first! So, I ran into these people's backyard looking for a place to hide when these two huge dogs came running after me! (Keep in mind, I was still butt naked!) As I hauled ass through their backyard, I jumped over the rock wall…which on the front end was about five feet tall, but the drop-down was about 10 feet into these prickly/thorny bushes! After falling into them and finding my way out, I was a bloody mess. I looked around the backyard for something to cover up with and began banging on these people’s sliding glass door, begging them to lend me their phone. I was thinking I was going to call my druggy friends to get me, and I would be home free, but instead, they called the police, and I was arrested about 5 minutes later. I was kept in the holding tank at the police station for a few hours and picked up by somebody from KIDS…apparently, I had already been reported as a runaway.
Once I got back to KIDS, I was strip-searched…treated like shit and thrown back into the group. Sucked! That was the best and worst day of my life.
A Newcomer’s Story #3
I believe I was on 4th or 5th phase because I was allowed to drive to school. I had my grandparents’ station wagon and would go home to Roswell. I was tired of trying to keep all of my lies straight. I was not some big druggie. I was a kid who found a good way to get my parents to pay attention to me instead of just my sister. Messed up? Yes! I did not have a big enough past and knew that if I did not create one, I was going to rot on 1st phase forever. Needless to say, those lies were unraveling, and I knew it.
I was pulling out of the parking lot and turning the opposite way than I should. I saw Kris and Yvonne staring at me and asking me where I was going. When I ignored them, they started to follow me. I was not going to stop. I was not going back to that hell hole. I felt trapped and panicked, and that horrible pit in my stomach, knowing that I was caught.
I headed towards the freeway and just kept going. I was going home. The next thing I know is that I have cops trying to pull me over. I knew if I stopped, I would be hauled back to kids and started over, and I was not going to do that. I made up my mind, and I just kept driving. I don’t think I have ever felt so panicked in my life. I had a cop pull up beside me and motion for me to pull over, and I rolled down my window and explained that I could not; I was never going back. I am sure he thought I was crazy. They followed me for a long time and then tried to slow me down. Two got in front of me, and one in the back. I really was not trying to hurt anyone; I just could not stop. I swerved to get away from them and almost hit an 18-wheeler head-on. He jackknifed, trying to avoid me, and ended up rolling over in the ditch. Needless to say, I was really freaking out at this time. Everything happened so fast, and I didn’t know how to stop it. The cops tried again to slow me down, and I plowed through them, running one off the road. Never in my brain did I think I was going to hurt anyone - I just had to keep going because I could not go back.
After I ran the cop off the road, things calmed down. I could not see anyone chasing me, and I thought I was going to make it home. I think this is when realizing I was in real trouble hit me. My parents would never allow me to go to my house in Roswell. According to my mom, my friends were gone and wanted nothing to do with me, so I did not know where I would go. I am not sure what made me turn around or what my thought process was, but I did. As I was driving back, I convinced myself that if I could get my mom alone without anyone from the program around, I could convince her how bad things were and to pull me.
The next thing I knew, I looked up, and Yvonne and Kris were behind me again. I just panicked. We drove around for a while, and I made a bone-head move and turned into a parking lot with no exit except the one Kris and Yvonne were blocking. I jumped the curb and tried to take the station wagon off-roading. I high-centered it on a dirt mound. Everything just happened so fast. The cops, my mom, and others were there. I just wanted to kill myself, and I had nothing to do it with now because I had screwed up with the car. I remember just sitting there staring at a bottle of White Shoulders perfume, wondering if I drank it all, would it kill me? As my mother knocked on the car window, screaming at me, I remember thinking I was so sorry and drinking the perfume. I opened the door, and it was over. I didn’t die; I just puked my guts out and then was arrested. The rest of the night is just a blur. All I remember is “Big Bertha, the bite mark queen” (she had bite marks all over her body and was very proud to show all of them to me) in jail, telling me to shut up or she would give me a reason to cry. I just whimpered in the corner. After that, my next memory of this time was being sentenced to complete the KIDS program that I was so desperately trying to get away from. And once again, I was walked down the center of group and started over for the last time.
In 2012, a former KIDS of El Paso teen shared a photo of her attempt to remove a shard of glass embedded in her leg when she broke through a window to escape the program decades earlier.
In The News
An 18-year-old woman led police on a freeway chase at speeds up to 100 mph Friday and was charged with aggravated assault with a motor vehicle. *** reportedly was a runaway from KIDS of El Paso, police said. *** was jailed late Friday. Officer *** said, "She tried to swerve and try to hit me several times. She just refused to pull over" during the chase from the West Side to Las Cruces. Police officer *** started chasing *** after he stopped two people who were following *** at about 6 p.m. near Sunland Park and Interstate 10. They had an expired inspection sticker, he said. "I was trying to stop them, and they kept pointing at her," he said, adding that the unidentified pair told him *** was a runaway from the KIDS rehabilitation program at 6500 Boeing. *** and his partner, *** joined in the chase, during which *** reportedly ran an 18-wheeler off the road. *** abandoned the chase in Las Cruces, after New Mexico State Police failed to meet up with him, he said. About three hours later, *** and *** found *** after responding to a reported fight in a parking lot on the West Side. The pair who were following *** had met up with her, police said, and in trying to get away from them, she got the 1980 Oldsmobile station wagon stuck on a curb. She refused to unlock the doors, so police had her mother bring a spare set of keys. *** mother said KIDS officials told her Friday afternoon that *** was missing. The mother also reported that the station wagon was stolen.
An El Paso lawyer and antagonist of the KIDS of El Paso County rehabilitation program has been charged with harboring a teenager who ran away from the program Friday. Judge *** Court-at-Law No. 2, said a summons was issued Wednesday for lawyer *** of the ***. No court date has been set. *** said he was aware of the charge but that he questioned the reasons behind it. He said of Sgt. *** of the police Youth Services Division, who filed the arrest affidavit: "He's a big proponent of KIDS of El Paso. It's difficult for me to imagine that his involvement with KIDS did not motivate him to bring those charges." *** could not be reached for comment. The Class A misdemeanor charge stems from a police report filed Saturday by *** of the *** block of ***. In it she told police that her 15-year-old son had been in the KIDS of El Paso program for about two years and seven months. He left Friday, failing to return to the KIDS building at 6500 Boeing after classes at Desert View Middle School. *** contacted at her home Wednesday night, declined comment, but in her police report she told police that "personnel from the KIDS program called her and told her that they had information that her son was at (a house in the *** block of ***.)" Police went to that house which belongs to a friend of ***' - but did not find the 15-year-old during a search. *** said Wednesday that the boy was not staying with him. When asked if the 15 year-old had been staying with him, *** said: "I'm not going to comment. But staying with someone does not constitute harboring a runaway." *** later arranged a conference call with the boy and the boy said he was in El Paso and safe but didn't want to be a part of the rehabilitation program anymore. He said he was angry because since being in the program, "I've lost my education, totally." He listed only two benefits of the program: "I can pay attention a little better, and I can sit up a bit straighter'' *** had said in a police report he filed Monday against the 15-year-old that the boy to be at (***' home.) *** reported that his .22-caliber automatic pistol had been stolen. He said Wednesday that the boy returned the pistol the next day and that Monday was the only day the boy had been allowed to stay at ***' home "for a period of time." The boy stole the gun, *** said as "a desperate act, but not a surprising act" to protect himself against people who want him to return to the program. Last March, *** alleged that KIDS was holding an 18-year-old man against his will. ***' complaints led to a state investigation of the program. The Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse is threatening to revoke KIDS' license because of alleged violations of state regulations and laws.
A 17-year-old who tried to leave the KIDS of El Paso County rehabilitation program Thursday is in Thomason Hospital's psychiatric ward. *** said he tried to leave his host home on Ashwood Drive in East El Paso at about 9:45 p.m. Thursday. El Paso police Officer *** said two people were on top of *** "just trying to keep him from escaping."
A former El Paso police detective - fired last year for it off-duty involvement with juveniles without notifying the Police Department in writing - was arrested Tuesday on charges of harboring the runaway son of a college dean. ***, 37, of the 100 block of *** on the West Side, was released from the El Paso County Jail after posting $1,000 bond, jail records show. According to a police report filed Sept. 13, ***, dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of ***, told police that his son had run away Sept. 8 and was staying at ***'s home. In a report filed Sept. 8, *** told police his son had been enrolled in the KIDS of El Paso Inc. drug rehabilitation program for 17 months and that he ran away with another youth who was staying at the *** home as part of that program. ***'s son, ***, turned 17 in September after he left *** home. But while he was there he was, under law, a juvenile. *** declined to comment when contacted Wednesday. *** said he did not want to comment publicly on his arrest until after police finished an investigation into an incident in which the elder *** allegedly forced his way into the home of one of *** neighbors, looking for his son. "I want to see if everything is played across the board," he said. When *** was fired from the Police Department in July 1987, police officials would say only that he was fired for violating rules, regulations, and policies of the Police Department. In later interviews, *** said he was fired because police officials were worried about his off-duty involvement with what he called troubled youth. Such involvement resulted in *** being fired in 1979, but after a jury refused to indict him the El Paso Civil Service Commission ordered him returned to his job.
