December 18, 2010

This is the third weekend that our 15 year old son has not come home on
Friday night.  He does not come home from school on Friday nights.  We
have no idea where he is and he refuses to tell us.  He has been kicked
off of the wrestling team (he wrestled for the first time last year and
was immediately placed on varsity, but the coach could not trust him on
overnight trips -- which I totally understand).  He has been constantly
tardy to classes and skipping, to the point Monday the school had to give
him Out of School Suspension because he refuses to go to detention or
attend Saturday school.

We used to call the police and file a missing person report each time he
did not come home, but we feel like we are wasting the police officers
time having him come out and file a report to have him show up was the
weekend is over.  He has lost his bike (it has been removed from the home)
in hopes that it would wake him up -- but it hasn't.  He has been told
that we will not take him out driving to obtain his driving hours until he
has straightened up and is clean of drugs.  He tells us then he will drive
with his friends.

He has just had to meet before the judge for his second offense.  The
first time was last month when launching golf balls over the bypass (they
also found cigarettes, a lighter, and a recipe for homemade opium on him
but handed that over to us to take care of), which he got a $201 ticket
for with agreement to pay $20 / month.  This month he had to meet before
the judge for fighting, which he got another $201 ticket with an agreement
to pay an additional $20 / month.  Being 15 years old, he does not have a
job and has no motivation to do odd jobs in the neighborhood.  He told us
that he can get the money because kids at school owe him over $100.  When
we asked why they owe him, he tells us that it is just stupid stuff that
he does not want to tell us.  (I fear that he is dealing drugs).

We are at a loss of what to do.  Nothing that we do helps.  We have three
other children.  All of us are suffering from this and as parents, we have
no idea what to do.