December 10, 2010

He is not involved in an official gang, as far as I know, although his
group of friends are a very tight knit group.  They cover for one another,
do not "nark" on each other, they follow street law not legal law.  When
one kid was bugging some of his friends, he took care of it by setting up
a fight with the kid.  The kid called his father and told his father that
he needed to show up at a specific time because their were rumors that
someone was going to try to fight him.  From the story that I have gotten,
my son attacked the kid at the designated time and place and the kid did
not fight back.  As he was viciously pounding on the kid, the father
showed up and my son ran.  Later the police caught up with him and he
received a ticket for fighting.  He is very upset that the other kid did
not get a ticket but as I told him the other kid did not fight back.

During the incident that had been described before of when he sneaked out
of his room on the night of Black Friday, we received calls from someone
that I thought was him playing around with us.  When I told him what they
had said on the phone, he got very angry with a specific person.  This
same person also burned him several times with a lighter at the mall on
Black Friday.  We asked why he did not get the mall security and he said
he does not nark on people, he just gets even.  We told him that he cannot
afford another ticket.  He told us that he does not have to do anything,
he has people.  Later that day, he told us that we do not have to worry
about the kid that called us, that he had him taken care of.  My wife
commented that we had told him that he cannot afford another ticket and he
told us that he did not have to do anything but his people have his back.

As for the drug issue.  In 8th grade (two years ago), he did start getting
involved in drug dealing.  He was busy gathering contacts of people
wanting drugs for a drug dealer.  We found the list of names and informed
the school police liaison that we had the list but never heard back from
the police officer.  Eventually he told us that this is how one works into
the business.  You gather contacts first to see if they can trust you.  I
was shocked at how much he knew about drug dealing and where the drugs
were coming from and the network involved in drug dealing.

Lately, I fear that he is dealing drugs again.  In September, he was
arrested for launching golf balls over a by-pass.  One hit a car but did
not cause any damage.  Him and four friends were arrested.  They found
cigarettes, a lighter, and a recipe for homemade Opium on his position.
The police officer decided to hand it over to us for us to deal with since
this was his first offense.  (Now I think this was a big mistake).  I was
upset when the police officer showed me the recipe and I stated that we
will not be taking him home until he admits to where he got the recipe.
Our son stated that he had gotten it off of the Internet.  He was asked if
he had been using Opium and he stated that no he has not, that he was
planning on making it and selling it to make some money.  The police
officer had a frank discussion with him about how that is not where he
wants to go.

Recently, our digital kitchen scale has come up missing.  The only reason
we can come up with that it is missing is because he is using it for
measuring out drugs.

In talking to him about how he is going to get the money to pay for his
fine for the golf ball incident, he told us that he has people that owe
him over $100.  When asked why people were oweing him money, especially
since he does not have a job or a source of money, he kept on saying "All
I will say is that it is some stupid stuff."  We asked him what stupid
stuff specifically and he would just reply "Just stupid stuff."

He had a broken down iPod (with a cracked screen).  I believe that this
was his contact with those that he is dealing drugs too.  That is why when
we locked out his wifi connection, he threw a complete fit, to the point
that he started punching me, his father.

When he lost his iPod, right before Thanksgiving weekend, he stoled my
cell phone for three days.  I believe that since he did not have his iPod
anymore, he needed another source of private contact so he took my cell
phone.

After him being out over Thanksgiving weekend without us knowing where he
was (Wednesday night -- he had sneaked back into the house but hid in the
basement and we found him after having filed a missing person report with
the police office;  Thursday night -- he went to bed at 11:30 and by 12:15
am when we checked his room, he was not there and did not show up until
10:00 AM; Friday night -- he called with a friends cell phone after having
been gone all day wanting to know if he could stay the night at a friend's
house, I told him no and that I would pick him up.  He gave me the address
to pick him up but it was a bogus address.  The next morning when we found
him, he swore up and down that we had given him permission to stay the
night -- and it was like he really believed it himself.  Saturday night,
he did come home but it was extremely late), we decided to get him a cell
phone that he could at least contact us and let us know where he is.
(Especially after an entire holiday weekend of almost no sleep).

Since he has the cell phone, he has calmed down a lot.  Still is out a
lot, has been tardy to many of his classes (although not truant lately),
but we at least know where he is and most of the time he has us pick him
up instead of catching a ride with other kids -- of whom we do not know
how trustworthy they are.

While I do not have proof that he is dealing drugs, both his mother and I
are extremely concerned because of the signs that we see.