Missing Teen Home Safe in Nashua

Alex White, the runaway teen who family and police spent nearly 48 hours searching for, is home safe with his parents this morning.

"He walked in the door at 6:30 this morning," said Jason Fiore, Alex's former football and lacrosse coach.

Fiore said when Alex was asked by police Friday morning why he left home he said he needed time alone to "sort things out."  

"I told him if you need to talk to somebody and don't want to talk to your parents, here's my number," Fiore said. "So so many people who he doesn't even know were out driving around in the past 48 hours looking for him. I was out the past couple of nights until 2:30 in the morning." 

The 13-year-old Elm Street Middle School student left home Wednesday after an argument with his mom, Kay White, over an incident in school. His mom said that her son has been bullied since the beginning of the school year, and that Alex had gotten in trouble for using his phone inappropriately at school, to threaten another student.

When he came home from school Wednesday his mom took his phone away, as punishment. The teen left home with few items in his backpack and a skateboard. 

A network of caring friends, family – and complete strangers – quickly launched via Facebook through the close-knit PAL Force football community, which immediately spread the word to be on the lookout for Alex. 

Fiore said he doesn't know where Alex spent the past 48 hours.

"I'm assuming during night he was sleeping at somebody's house, he looked OK. He was emotional this morning, overwhelmed by all that's happened," Fiore said.  

Fiore said that one of the triggers in this situation was the unresolved issue of bullying that Alex was trying to deal with on his own. Although bullying is nothing new, many kids today have to deal with bullying beyond the confines of school, as it follows them through text messaging and online social networks, also referred to as cyberbullying.

In fact, October is National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, which includes all kinds of programs and resources for towns and schools that want to stop bullying through education, such as stopbullying.gov, an online clearinghouse of resources for schools and municipalities.

According to recent statistics fro the Centers for Disease Control, between 1 in 3 and 1 in 4 students say they've been bullied on school property.

"It's worse now for kids because there are so many different ways bullies can get to them. Now you can publicly humiliate someone online, as well.  Being a coach you have new kids that come on a team, and whether it's football or lacrosse, I feel it's a coach's job to teach the older kids to be leaders, friends, role models and take the new kids under their wing, and let them know they have each other's back, in school and outside the sports arena. They're a band of brothers," Fiore said.

Fiore, who is a former coach for PAL Force in Nashua and now coaches the Hudson-Litchfield Bears as well as the Nashua Blast lacrosse team, said Alex is a strong-willed student and athlete – he was named PAL football player of the year three years ago, for his academic and athletic successes.