AWOL

This is similar to the military term awol. However it is used by foster children in group homes I believe it may be in Canada only. It stems from the act of the staff reporting kids missing, their paperwork term is AWOL. If a child is actually as it says, they will be out without explicit permission from the foster parent, group home staff or their child service worker. They will have a missing person report filed if they are truly awol. In kids who have grown up in these homes there is alternative meanings, it is a way of referring to crazy or aggressive behaviours. It doesn’t apply outside of those. If someone ‘went AWOL’ in any way you would not want to be around. They could have started a fight or just screamed in everyone’s face who knows. A kid going awol is different than someone going missing among foster children because if someone goes awol there’s no real risk because someone (foster parent, worker, other foster kids) actually knows where they are. Missing means no one knows and they could be in danger, it’s much more serious.