Kaine: Security main reason for 'Wall of Hope' move
PORTLAND, Ore. – Kyron's 'Wall of Hope' started as a single, small sign shortly after the second grader went missing.
It now has grown so large that it wraps around the fence in front of Skyline School, the place where more than 10 weeks ago 7-year-old Kyron Horman is believed to have disappeared.
People from all over Oregon, even across the country, have put mementos on this wall. We've even been there as Kyron's parents collected some of those items to save for the little boy's return.
Now, with the school year starting soon, those messages and wishes for Kyron's return will be taken down. But not forever.
The creator of the wall – along with Kyron's father Kaine Horman and the Portland Public School District – are looking for a new home for the Wall of Hope's collection of memories and well wishes, from signs and balloons to a growing collection of paper cranes. KATU spoke with Kaine Monday about this news.
"I think we all agree – the principal, the faculty, myself and the community – that it should stay in the community," Kaine said.
And why the relocation?
"My number one thing ... is the security aspect of it," Kaine told KATU reporter Dan Tilkin by phone. "There are a lot of people who go up to the wall everyday, and when school starts I don't think that having a lot of new faces, new adults, on the school property – with kids in school – really helps with school security. We have a missing child, and security was part of the issue with him going missing .... From a pure 'trying to walk the talk here' it made sense just to move the wall from that aspect alone. Not because anyone's going up there to do harm ... but just to limit the number of new adults going to the area."
There are other factors too, Kaine tells us.
"It could be a very uplifting thing for kids to come see, or it could be a very heavy thing," he said Monday afternoon. "I think a lot of people are leaning towards it could being a more serious, heavy thing for kids coming back to school that first day."
So while the mementos on the wall continue to grow, those messages and wishes for Kyron's return have yet to find the new home they'll need. (See: "'Wall of Hope' won't end up at school headquarters after all.")
That's why the wall's creator tells us she has set up a specific e-mail address for people to send ideas on where to move the wall.
Kaine said he doesn't have any particular ideas of where he would like it to be within the Northwest Portland community. However, "it needs to stay ... here. I don't think it should be in another part of the city," he said.
After all, no matter if the mementos are on school property or not, "...I think it's going to be on the forefront of their minds," he said. "We need to keep it in the community where all the kids and families can look at it when they need to."
Finally, we asked Kaine about life now, as he enters the 11th week of this search and works to find a new location for the items that signify his hunt for Kyron.
"I sleep with my phone," Kaine tells us. "I'm waiting for the call: I'm waiting for him to be found and waiting to go pick him up ... It's always on your mind."
"It's very hard to do things while he's gone. With him not being here ... you start wondering if I should even bother to get up to do anything," he said. "It motivates me to get up if I think I'm doing something in preparation for him to come home."
– KATU.com Reporter Jennifer Meacham contributed to this report.
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