Jenelle Evans, the former star of Teen Mom 2, had a scare on Tuesday when her son Jace did not return home after school. The 14-year-old boy was reported as a runaway juvenile to the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Department in North Carolina. He was last seen leaving Roger Bacon Academy in Leland, NC, around 2:45 p.m. He was wearing either a gray sweatshirt with “Classical Charter Schools of America” written on it, or a navy shirt if he shredded the top layer.
Jenelle, who shares Jace with ex Andrew Lewis, has been his legal guardian since March this year, when she regained custody of him from her mother Barbara Evans. Barbara had been taking care of Jace for 13 years, since Jenelle was pregnant with him on MTV’s 16 & Pregnant in 2009.
Jenelle explains why Jace ran away
Jenelle, who also has two other children and a stepdaughter, said that Jace ran away because he was angry that she took his phone away as a punishment. She said that he got in trouble at school and that she decided to discipline him accordingly. She also denied that the incident had anything to do with her marriage to David Eason, whom she has accused of domestic violence in the past.
“As a boy mom, kids can act up and rebel as I’m sure the majority of us all once did as kids too,” Jenelle said in a statement provided by her manager August Keen. “Jace is a good kid, and we’re not dealing with anything that most families don’t deal with while raising children. This has absolutely nothing to do with my situation with David, we do not argue in front of our children or fight in front of our kids. This is a teenage boy being a teenager mad that we decided to take his phone away.”
Jace returns home safely
After hours of searching and worrying, Jenelle and her family were relieved to find out that Jace had been found and was safe. Her manager confirmed the news to E! News on Tuesday evening. “Jace has been found, and is safely at home with Jenelle and his family,” August said in a statement. “Thank you to the Brunswick Co. Sheriff’s Department and to everyone else for their concerns.”
Jenelle also thanked the authorities and the public for their help and support on her Instagram stories. She posted a photo of herself hugging Jace and wrote, “Thank you everyone for your prayers.” She also shared a video of Jace playing video games with his siblings and stepdad at home.
