The Killiams Point Incident Report. Written April 17, 2002 During the week of April vacation (April 15th – April 17th) members of 21 Futures attended a 3-day retreat at Killiams Point in Branford, CT. While on the retreat we had several incidents that lead to finally packing up the group and returning back to New Haven. On Tuesday, we had to sit the group down and warn them regarding the trash. There were juice rappers found floating in the water, soda cans on the trails. One of the members of the group climbed out of their bedroom window and jumped of the roof landing on one of the wooden picnic tables. I sat the group down and discussed why it was important for us to maintain the area due to the fact that we are “guests” here and how VERY dangerous jumping off of anything is. This was their first verbal warning. Later on in that afternoon while making dinner, the fire alarm goes off. Once the fire department comes, we discover that a “fire alarm box” was pulled. We again have another group meeting and this time I inform the group of the severity of pulling the fire alarm and the fines for pulling it. No one in the group came forward as knowing how the fire alarm was pulled. I informed the group that I would pack-up and return back to New Haven before I allow the reputation of Hill Cooperative Youth Services be ruined because people can not respect the property or know how to behave. It was about 10:30 pm when one of the youths comes running down the stairs say that the bathroom is flooding. As I walk up the stairs, water is coming down the stairs and as I open the door, the bathroom and hallway was completely flooded. Several of the youth upstairs were laughing. When I asked what happened, no one knew. I went downstairs to see if I could find a plunger to then discover that water was coming through the ceiling on the first floor. Buckets were placed to try to catch some of the water. I again returned upstairs to try to find out what had happened. Still know one knew. I asked who was the LAST one to use the bathroom and know one knew. It was at that point when I told EVERYONE to pack up what they brought and that we were returning back to New Haven. I drove each youth to their home and returned to Killiams Point that night to try to clean up and repair some of the water damage to the ceiling.
Omar Xavior R. Ford
Program Coordinator /21 Futures