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He filed a missing person's report with the Bluffton Police Department. But within days, Jenkins learned that his son hadn't really disappeared.
Somehow the boy had traveled to New York City to be with his mother, who lives there but doesn't have custody of him, Jenkins said Tuesday.
Jenkins said he then turned to the staff at Bluffton High for help.
He said that during the two weeks his son was in New York, he and Assistant Principal Cecilia Griswold had several conversations and that she promised to help get the boy back to South Carolina.
"She told me she would help," Jenkins said of Griswold. "She told me she was there for me ... .
"I found out pretty soon that he was with his mother," he said, "and when I explained this to Mrs. Griswold, she was very concerned and said she would help me."
Now, Griswold and Bluffton High School hall monitor Lovelle McDonald are accused of kidnapping after they allegedly helped the teen get on a Greyhound bus to New York City to be with his mother.
Police say the teenager had told Griswold he was being abused. Instead of turning that information over to investigators, Griswold and McDonald helped him run away, police said.
Police investigated the allegations of abuse and determined they were unfounded. Jenkins, too, called the accusations"completely false."
Police believe Griswold and McDonald got money from the boy's mother to cover the bus fare and arranged for the boy to be driven to the Greyhound bus station in Beaufort, where he bought a ticket and boarded a bus, according to a release from the police department.
The boy was sent back to Bluffton by his mother, Daintha Mason, on another bus after Bluffton Police contacted her, according to a missing person's report released Tuesday by the police department.
Bluffton Police Chief David McAllister said police are trying to figure out how Griswold and McDonald connected with the mother in New York.
"McDonald may know the mother, she may have some connection there, but we don't know yet," he said. "We know that Griswold was well aware of the boy's custody issues and that the father had full custody in the case."
Griswold has been placed on paid administrative leave pending resolution of the charges. McDonald is on unpaid leave from the school, Beaufort County School District officials said Monday.
Griswold was released from the Beaufort County Detention Center on Tuesday on $60,000 bond. She is charged with kidnapping, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and failure to report claims of abuse.
McDonald was released Sunday on a $50,000 bond on charges of kidnapping and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
