Second time around (Wyoming)

By JENNI DILLON
Star-Tribune staff writer
When company shows up at the Doll house, 12-year-old Williy runs to shut his bedroom door.

"Never look in my room," he calls, laughing, as his grandmother, Connie Doll, scoffs at the mess.

Williy props himself on a footstool, back against his grandmother, and describes the off-limits space.

"I have a glow-in-the-dark space comforter and space sheets," he says. "I really basically like space."

By most standards, Williy is an average pre-teen boy. He loves hopping on his bike or four-wheeler and exploring the open spaces near his home. He tells of daring adventures speeding on two wheels down hilly dirt roads, and he points to his thigh, where he carries a scar from breaking his femur in a four-wheeling accident. He dreams of someday going to space camp and later becoming an astronaut.

In some respects, though, Williy's life has been far from average.

He has never stayed in the same school for two consecutive years, and his grandmother worries that he's a bit of a loner.

He's been in foster care, the Youth Crisis Center and ongoing counseling.

And, for the past four years, he has lived with his grandparents in Casper.

In a trend that social workers attribute primarily to the methamphetamine epidemic across the state, Wyoming has the highest rate of kinship care placements in the country. Most of those placements are with grandparents.

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/03/13/news/casper/c6d35a17645dd01c8725712e007c9881.txt