Free Spirit Media was in shock after hearing two participants went missing on the West Side of Chicago.
(Right)Princess Beechem, 13 (Left) Sernetroca William, 14, at Free Spirit West Labs
Princess Beechem photo courtesy of Facebook
CHICAGO - “We’re just glad they made it home, that’s all we’re worried about,” FSM production coordinator of West Labs Terrance Patterson said.
On Monday, May 18, Princess Becheem 13, and Sernetroca Williams, 14, went missing. According to ABC7 Chicago, police said, ‘The two girls may have been together.’
On Friday, May 22, Beecham returned home; a couple of days later, Williams was found on Sunday, May 24.
Beecham and Williams were both participants of Free Spirit West Labs, an apprenticeship program coordinated by Danielshè Rodgers and Terrance Patterson. Free Spirit West Labs is a program for teens by Free Spirit Media (FSM), a nonprofit organization located on the westside of Chicago.
“Sernetroca was in our fall session, then she leveled up to our spring level two, and she brought her friend along as well, which was Princess,” Rodgers said.
“[Sernetroca] was the life of the program, and she kept everybody laughing,” Patterson said
Unfortunately, Black people become missing at a very high rate.
The 2018 National Crime Information Center Missing Person and Unidentified Person Statistics shows, 207,394 Black People went missing in the United States ages 21 and below made up 166,991. When looking at The United States Census Bureau, Black or African Americans currently make up less than 14 percent of the United States, and kids under the age of 18 make up less than 24 percent of kids in The United States.
After learning that Beecham and Williams were missing, FSM spread the news throughout their organization, and tried contacting their parents, but were not able to get in touch with them until the two girls were found safely.
"This saddened a lot of our staff because, like I said, these are teens that we saw almost every day on a regular basis and now that our teens come up missing, we have relationships with these teens, and we know how this teen is, and it hurts a lot of us deeply," Rodgers said. “That’s something we don’t think about (the girls going missing), we hope and pray that none of our members come up missing, it was the last thing on our mind.”