JOSHUA ROBB - 8 yo/ Autistic - Twin Peaks/ Lake Arrowhead CA

Autistic boy, 8, sought in San Bernardino Mountains



A search in a San Bernardino Mountains community was continuing as nightfall approached
for an 8-year-old autistic boy who ran away from his elementary school Monday morning.

Joshua Robb, whom authorities described as "severely autistic," was last seen on
the playground of Grandview Elementary School in Twin Peaks, near Lake Arrowhead.

The boy, who has brown hair and dark brown eyes, was wearing a tan and gray striped shirt,
black shorts and gray sandals, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
He is about 4 feet, 6 inches tall.

Joshua left the school about 11 a.m., and the search was launched soon after.
Sheriff’s deputies, the California Highway Patrol and numerous volunteers were
scouring the heavily wooded areas surrounding the school. A helicopter was also aiding in the effort.

Authorities had followed Joshua’s footsteps leading from the school, but failed to find the boy.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jodi Miller said officials planned on continuing the search
throughout the night, using infrared and night vision equipment.

Anyone with information was asked to call the department’s Twin Peaks station at (909) 336-0600 or (909) 387-8313.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/missing-autistic-boy-.html

L.A. NOW


Southern California -- this just in

Crews look for autistic 8-year-old in forest near Lake Arrowhead



Facing the threat of thunderstorms, the search continued Tuesday for a severely autistic 8-year-old boy who ran away from his elementary school into the San Bernardino National Forest, authorities said.

Officials saw Joshua Robb running away from Grandview Elementary School in the Lake Arrowhead area Monday morning, apparently after squeezing through a fence.

Staff members chased Joshua, who is 4-feet-6 and about 75 pounds, but couldn’t catch him before he ran into a nearby forest.

San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies responded within minutes of receiving a call that a boy was missing from the school, said Cindy Bachman, a spokeswoman for the agency.

“This kind of behavior where he runs off is typical,” she said, while adding that Joshua had never fled into the forest before or been gone long enough to merit a search by law enforcement.

Complicating the search is the fact that Joshua suffers from autism and is afraid of loud sounds, Bachman said.
“Loud noises or loud voices could be disturbing to him," she said. "Unfortunately, that's really the only way to search for him.”

Another factor is inclement weather: The National Weather service predicted thunderstorms in the Lake Arrowhead area Tuesday, with winds up to 20 mph.

Joshua had recently been taken from his family and placed into protective custody, his father told television crews.

The father, identified as Ron Robb by KNBC-TV, speculated his son ran from the school to return to his parents, who recently lost their home in foreclosure.

Joshua has brown hair and brown eyes and was last seen wearing a tan and gray shirt, black shorts and gray sandals.

Anyone with information was asked to call the department’s Twin Peaks station at (909) 336-0600 or (909) 387-8313.



http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/forest-autistic-boy.html

An autistic 8-year-old boy who was missing
for more than 24 hours after running away from his school was found in
"pretty good shape" Tuesday afternoon in a deep canyon in the rugged San
Bernardino National Forest, sheriff's officials said.

Joshua Robb, who had crawled through a school fence at Grandview
Elementary late Monday morning, was found about a mile away in an area
that was difficult to reach.

"He's drinking water ... eating ... it's elation ... relief," San
Bernardino County sheriff's Lt. Rick Ells told reporters at the Twin
Peaks Sheriff's Station near Lake Arrowhead.

Medics have been flown in to check his condition.

"His general condition, he seems in pretty good shape. He is tired, eating," said Ells.

Rescuers had spread out across the forest Tuesday morning in a frantic search for the boy.

A shoe print was found by the more than 60 deputies and California Highway Patrol officers who were looking for the boy.
Staff members at the school had apparently chased Joshua, who is 4
feet 6 and weighs about 75 pounds, but they couldn’t catch him before he
ran into the forest.

News of the boy's rescue came just as Joshua's father, Ron Robb, was speaking to reporters.

He was found by a three-person crew. First they found the striped
shirt he'd been wearing about a mile and a half northeast of the school.
They took a photograph of it and emailed his mother, Patricia Calcott,
44, to find out if it belonged to her son. She said it was Joshua's.

The crews continued and found him not far from where the shirt was
found in a deeply forested area described as being like a canyon. Capt.
Tony Nicassio said "he was basically boxed in."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/missing-autistic-boy.html

kiwimom wrote:An autistic 8-year-old boy who was missing
for more than 24 hours after running away from his school was found in
"pretty good shape" Tuesday afternoon in a deep canyon in the rugged San
Bernardino National Forest, sheriff's officials said.

Joshua Robb, who had crawled through a school fence at Grandview
Elementary late Monday morning, was found about a mile away in an area
that was difficult to reach.

"He's drinking water ... eating ... it's elation ... relief," San
Bernardino County sheriff's Lt. Rick Ells told reporters at the Twin
Peaks Sheriff's Station near Lake Arrowhead.

Medics have been flown in to check his condition.

"His general condition, he seems in pretty good shape. He is tired, eating," said Ells.

Rescuers had spread out across the forest Tuesday morning in a frantic search for the boy.

A shoe print was found by the more than 60 deputies and California Highway Patrol officers who were looking for the boy.
Staff members at the school had apparently chased Joshua, who is 4
feet 6 and weighs about 75 pounds, but they couldn’t catch him before he
ran into the forest.

News of the boy's rescue came just as Joshua's father, Ron Robb, was speaking to reporters.

He was found by a three-person crew. First they found the striped
shirt he'd been wearing about a mile and a half northeast of the school.
They took a photograph of it and emailed his mother, Patricia Calcott,
44, to find out if it belonged to her son. She said it was Joshua's.

The crews continued and found him not far from where the shirt was
found in a deeply forested area described as being like a canyon. Capt.
Tony Nicassio said "he was basically boxed in."

[url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/missing-autistic-boy.html

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/missing-autistic-boy.html[/quote[/url]]



Thanks Kiwi, was just going to post this good news.........YIKES YOU AND TOMMY BOY ARE QUICK

Parents Of Lost Boy With Autism Lose Initial Bid To Regain Custody
September 15, 2011 11:03 AM

TWIN PEAKS (CBS) — The parents of a Southland boy with severe autism, lost in the mountains for 30 hours, lost their initial bid Thursday to re-gain custody of him.

Joshua Robb, 8, was rescued Tuesday by searchers in the San Bernardino mountains. Following the rescue, Joshua’s parents spent an hour with him — their first visit together in a week.

The county took Joshua from the Ron and Patricia Robb after someone reported the couple had restrained him with a tether.


In court Thursday morning, San Bernardino County officials granted them visitation rights to their son every Monday. The will have an “emergency visit” with him Friday.

Joshua’s parents were recently evicted from their home, and are unemployed.

The court has ordered the Robbs to take classes. They say they’ll do whatever they can to get their son back.

The Robbs will return to court for another custody hearing on Sept. 26th.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/09/15/parents-of-lost-boy-with-autism-lose-custody-battle/

Joshua Robb’s Rescue: Questions Linger


Posted: Thursday, September 22, 2011 9:31 am
By Glenn Barr, Reporter | 0 comments
The most anxiety-laden rescue in recent mountain history ended ecstatically last week as searchers located Joshua Robb, a severely autistic boy, in rugged terrain northwest of Grandview Elementary School.
But after the joy of his reunion with his fearful parents faded, questions remain about the incident, the factors that led to it, the resources used in the two-day search and what might prevent its recurrence.
When the 8-year-old boy bolted from a teacher's care, squeezed through an opening in a fence and ran from the Twin Peaks campus, his actions triggered events that brought out the good in many local residents and prompted many to pray.
For those who haven't followed the saga, Joshua was taken from his parents, Ronnie Robb and Patricia Calcott, after their arrest Aug. 22.
The Robb family had been evicted from their foreclosed home on Sequoia Drive in Lake Arrowhead. They were living in a tent on the property when spotted by a Realtor who saw Joshua tethered to a deck post.
When sheriff's deputies found marijuana paraphernalia in the tent, both parents were arrested and Joshua was placed in foster care. The district attorney's office has since declined to file charges.
THE CUSTODY BATTLE
Ronnie Robb said Monday that he and his wife are fighting to get their son back. He's currently in foster care at a home off the mountain, Robb said.
In a court hearing last week, Robb and Calcott were granted a one-hour visit with their son every Monday. The visits take place in a room in a county facility down the mountain, he said.
During the hearing, the judge imposed a gag order, so Robb did not discuss its particulars, other than to deny he and his wife had mistreated their son.
"We're not bad parents," he told this newspaper. "We've done nothing but care for that boy his entire life. He's my only son."
the background
The Robbs' road to financial crisis mirrors what countless Americans have experienced since the housing market hit the skids in 2008.
When the family bought its home in 2006, the economy was strong. Work for Robb, a carpenter and handyman, was plentiful. But unseen trouble was looming over the horizon.
"If I'd have known better I'd have bought a smaller place farther up the hill," he said. A friend persuaded him to buy in Lake Arrowhead instead because land values would rise faster there.
The friend was right. In the first year the house's value shot up $100,000, Robb said.
Meanwhile, 4-year-old Joshua's parents began suspecting he might be autistic. A physician confirmed that diagnosis.
"The first five years are the most important in a child's life," he said. So Robb decided to take a year off work to be with his son.
Then came the crash, work dried up and Robb exhausted his IRA to make mortgage payments, so the couple sought a loan modification.
"We'd gotten behind in our payments," he said. After months of delay, he said, they thought they had a deal with Chase, their lender, for a $697 monthly payment they could live with.
When Robb couldn't immediately lay his hands on tax documents he needed, he said, Chase gave him six months. It wasn't until later that he learned Chase had sold the home without his knowledge.
"There was never a pre-foreclosure notice posted on the house," he said. Robb said he'd gotten letters from Chase, but said Joshua had collected them in his play area, where they were found too late to be helpful.
THE COST
Whenever a massive search is launched, a question that naturally arises concerns what the hunt is costing taxpayers. In the case of the search for Joshua, the answer is, less than one might think.
Though the full cost has yet to be determined, the approximately 75 searchers who participated won't bill the county a penny.
Jodi Miller, a spokesperson for the sheriff's department, said the search-and-rescue teams that combed the woods looking for Joshua during a freak rainstorm are volunteers.
"They may have regular, paying jobs they may have to take some time from," she said. But in such instances, it's the rescuers, and not the taxpayers, who foot that bill. Even the gear team members use is their own, she said.
Twin Peaks Sheriff's Lt. Rick Ells, at the center of action during the search, said the two helicopters flying over the wooded area northwest of Grandview Elementary-where Joshua was eventually found-were piloted by deputies on regularly scheduled patrol, so no overtime was involved.
Sheriff's Department spokesperson Jodi Miller said Wednesday the hourly cost of flying a department helicopter is $1,200. The two choppers involved in the search logged a total of 16 hours, equal to a cost to taxpayers of $19,200.
To Robb and his wife, the financial news is also good. Miller said county residents are never billed for any part of the cost of a search for a lost person.
THE SCHOOL
Rim of the World Unified School District Interim Superintendent Donna Kellogg said Wednesday the district is conducting an investigation of the entire incident. She declined to comment on any aspect of it until that investigation is complete, but added a statement would be released when the investigation is finished.
Kellogg would not say what steps the district might take to close the fence gap through which Joshua escaped from Grandview Elementary.
Sources have cited a legal requirement that if a school district cannot provide adequate levels of care and supervision for a special-needs child, the district must arrange for that care at another school and pay for it.
A Rim district teacher who asked not to be identified said no such arrangements had been made for Joshua, attributing the lack of action to the Rim district's small size and budget problems.
Kellogg would not comment on that aspect of the case, and inquiries to the county superintendent of schools' office on that subject had not been responded to by press time.
THE OUTCOME
Though what problems Robb and Calcott may yet experience with their son remain to be seen, some good may have come from their ordeal.
Robb said he has had several offers of work from people who learned of the family's needs through news coverage of the search.
He's also looking for work with his voice. Robb said he does several voice impressions as well as comedy.
On Sunday, he said, he and his wife went to a service at Church of the Woods, "to thank people for praying for us. We'll be regular attenders there now," he said.
Robb, who said he'd named his son for the biblical successor to Moses in the Old Testament, noted that he himself is a carpenter, "just like Jesus. I was out with Detective (Gregg) Carpenter, with Aaron (Scullin, executive director of Rim Family Services, who has the name of Moses' brother), looking for Joshua. We have biblical significance going on here."
Robb mentioned the Ozzy Osbourne song, "No More Tears," played during the rescue. "The final line in the song is, ‘it's just a hand in the bush,'" he said. "We keep saying it was the hand of God."
Robb said he believes God protected his son, because he was told a mama bear and her cubs were spotted in the search area just before Joshua ran from school.


http://www.mountain-news.com/news/article_7dae8ca6-e538-11e0-889d-001cc4c002e0.html