Repeated reports cause removal of children from home
Staff writer
Four children ages 4 to 12 were taken into protective custody last week from a home in the 300 block of Locust St. In Marion after police were summoned to the home as many as three times a week for several weeks.
Court officials already had ordered a 15-year-old removed from the home.
Interim police Chief Zach Hudlin said police did a welfare check Feb. 25 on a 12-year-old at the request of school officials because the boy had not shown up at school. He previously had missed school for as long as a week and a half.
“The story was mom had overslept and it was cold outside and he didn’t want to walk to school,” Hudlin said.
An officer gave him a ride to school that day. That same afternoon, police returned to the address after neighbors misinterpreted sounds they heard as being a fight among two of the children. It turned out they were playing a noisy game of basketball, Hudlin said.
Three days later, police were helping the 15-year-old retrieve possessions from the home after a court ordered his removal.
In addition to other concerns, the 15-year-old had been riding in a pickup driven by Johnathan Prebble shortly before midnight Feb. 8 when Prebble allegedly tried to run over a former friend he had reported for drunken driving. Other issues were involved in the court ordering the 15-year-old removed from the home, Hudlin said.
While police were helping the teen retrieve his possessions, they noted the condition of the rental home, owned by a McPherson investor, Hudlin said.
Police and Department of Children and Families officials placed the children in protective custody on the basis of neglect and lack of adequate parental care, he said.