Countywide : Cheerless Holiday for Runaways

Patricia and Rico Montenegro should be putting up Christmas decorations and lights at their Placentia condominium. Instead, they are putting up flyers with a picture of a smiling teen-ager.

Their frequent trips to area shopping centers and strip malls highlight their attempt to find their 14-year-old daughter, Alita, who left home the day before Thanksgiving.

Alita is one of many who run away from home during the holidays.

According to youth shelters and agencies that deal with runaways, it is not uncommon for youths to run away from home precisely when families are expected to draw together.

“Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, we have a tremendous increase in the number of runaways reported,” said Toby Weiner, a case worker with the Adam Walsh Center, which helps parents find missing children. “We don’t know why, but the numbers go up.”

Lucianne Maulhardt, executive director of Casa Youth, a Los Alamitos shelter for runaways, made a similar observation.

“Last year, we had 10 kids here on Christmas Day,” Maulhardt said. “We were full all of December and January.”

Until recently, Casa Youth, which offers shelter to youths ages 14 to 17 for up to two weeks, would experience a dip in the number of runaways seeking shelter around the holidays.

But in the past two years, the shelter has been at its capacity of 12 from Thanksgiving to the middle of January.

The shelter usually receives about 200 calls a month from youths who have left home or are considering doing so. But between November, 1992, and January, 1993, the shelter received more than 1,000 calls.

Laurel House in Tustin, Florence Crittenton Services of Orange County and Amparo Youth Shelter in Garden Grove also report more calls during the winter months.

“Holiday times are difficult for troubled kids,” said Marilyn Salzman, Crittenton’s director of administration. “They think everyone is sitting down with their family for a big, happy meal.”

Casa Youth counselor Gary Zager said family problems are often magnified during the holidays. Expectations increase, economic problems often escalate and alcohol consumption rises between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

“Situations that might be handled one way in March or April are not dealt with as well during holidays,” Zager said.

Pressure from the holidays is compounded by several factors, Zager said.

After several months of being in school, youths often get discouraged about their performance in class. Report cards and progress reports start coming home, and parents realize that their kids have been cutting school.

While the Montenegros acknowledge that Alita left home voluntarily, their worry is the same as if she had been abducted.

“We are really concerned that she might have gotten into a situation where she’s not in control and doesn’t know how to get out of,” Patricia Montenegro said.

Although the couple have had one brief phone call from Alita, they are not convinced that their daughter is safe.

“It was strange not to have her with us on Thanksgiving,” Patricia Montenegro said. “It’s going to get even harder as it gets closer to Christmas.”