(TOWNSHIP OF GEORGIAN BLUFFS, ON) – On Thursday, July 2, 2015, at approximately 3:20 p.m., Grey County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) received a report of two boys missing from a residence on Hwy. 6 & 10 in the Township of Georgian Bluffs. The two friends, ages 10 and 12, were last seen inside the residence at 12:45 p.m. that afternoon.
Grey County OPP, with the assistance of the OPP Emergency Response Team (ERT), Canine Unit and the Owen Sound Police Service (OSPS) initiated a search for the boys who were located safe and sound at Harrison Park in Owen Sound at approximately 5:15 p.m.
The OPP would like to take this opportunity to share these few tips with parents and/or caregivers of children who were lost/missing, and located.
Reassure your child that they are safe.
Resist the temptation to reprimand them harshly.
Use this as an opportunity to discuss safety strategies.
Go over what happened, how everybody felt, and how the child was found.
Talk about other options that might have prevented the incident or allowed the child to be located sooner.
If your child experienced trauma of any kind it is important that this information be relayed to the police.
If necessary, take your child to the hospital to make sure everything is okay with them.
Don’t be hard on yourself — most parents have had this type of situation occur at some point of time or another.
Most importantly, view this experience as an opportunity to grow and learn. Your child was probably equally terrified and will need reassurance that they are going to be okay.
Being separated from your child, if only for a few minutes, can be a traumatic event for parents. It is important to learn from this experience and use it as an opportunity to discuss safety strategies with your child in order to help prevent such types of incidents from re-occurring in the future. Learn more …… www.missingkids.ca.