CatherineM Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Outside the bars, but still, it's a day I'll never get back. A kid from church, we've been helping out for a couple of years ended up in jail last night. He's the youngest of 10 kids. His dad is a drug addict that lives at the homeless shelter. About half of his older siblings are addicts. His mom is raising 3 of her grandkids. We've been trying to be a stable, positive influence for him, and until a couple of months ago, he has been just a great kid. He started hanging out with older kids, started doing pot, and last night they robbed and beat up a pizza delivery guy. He used a baseball bat. If he wasn't 16 years old, he'd be facing some serious time. We are committed to being in his face daily if necessary. We got him bailed out, but I don't know if he is facing prison time for this since it is a first offense and the pizza guy is going to be okay. I could have rung his neck. It definitely takes a village to raise kids today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missionseeker Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Many prayers for this kid. And for you. And don't start topics with those kinds of titles! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brandelynmarie Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 What she said. Wow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selah Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaPetiteSoeur Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Prayers for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG45 Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Prayers for him and for you all to be so committed to helping him! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnlySunshine Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Oh my! CatherineM, you had me worried! I thought YOU were arrested or something. I'm not happy to hear about your "foster" kid hanging with the wrong crowd. Praying that your influence rubs off on him and he grows up to be a Christian man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seven77 Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 prayers for this poor kid and his family. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
incarnatewordsister Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Prayers for him and for you. God bless your commitment to him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatherineM Posted November 1, 2011 Author Share Posted November 1, 2011 Just got home from enrolling him in the Cadets. It's kind of a combination of Explorer Scouts and JROTC. We have committed to taking him every Monday night, and for a weekend a month. It means I have to drop one of my classes next semester that meets on Monday night, and will delay my graduation, but people before schedules. Monday and Thursday mornings he will go to the rec center with us. While we are in water aerobics, he will work out in the gym or play basketball or something. I don't think he's going to do water aerobics with the rest of the old fogies, but he could swim laps. Once a week he will also be volunteering at the Marian Centre. They feed the homeless. He gets to work in the back. We don't want him to work with the clients. He already knows how to make friends with drug addicts. We want him to learn how to make relationships with healthy people, and the Madonna House people are as healthy and holy a group of people as we could hope for. We were afraid his mom would feel like we were usurping her authority, but she is so overwhelmed with life that she is taking all the help she can get. We also got him a cell phone today, not as a reward obviously. He has to work it off shoveling snow. We wanted to be able to keep better track of him, and his mom did too. Plus, we have told him that any time he needs us, we will come get him, no questions asked. Next time he is with people who are getting out of hand, he knows he can call us to come get him. I had that rule with my boys that if they found themselves some place where it meant having to ride with a drunk driver for example, they could call, and I'd come get them, and there would be no punishment for anything that might have gone on. We've also been feeding him at least once a day. His mom depends on the food bank, and sometimes that doesn't make for the best nutrition. He asked me if I thought he'd have to go to jail. I don't know here, back home probably. I did tell him that if he does, then he needs to take his consequences like a man, but we would visit every visiting day, and make sure his mom has a ride to come too. We take them to his meeting with a parole officer tomorrow in preparation for a court hearing on Friday. I just don't know how juvenile justice works here, but after this, I guess I will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luigi Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 He's in good hands - laws vary by jurisdiction, but you have a legal mind and you'll be able to figure it out. If the kid goes from bad to worse, it won't be for lack of support & role models. You're doing yeoman's work, and I've got him on the refrigerator prayer list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatherineM Posted November 1, 2011 Author Share Posted November 1, 2011 Well, he can use all the prayers he can get. His name is Zack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheresaThoma Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 I will add him into my prayers. Hopefully this will be a wakeup call for him to get his life back on track. JROTC should be good for him. I know a kid who was really messed up but ended up straightening his life out and ROTC was a big part of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i<3franciscans Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 Prayers for him! JROTC is a great program, it will do a lot of good for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatherineM Posted November 1, 2011 Author Share Posted November 1, 2011 Just got back from a meeting with his parole officer. There is a chance that the charges might eventually get dropped. Since the two people he was with are in their middle 20's, and are known drug dealers with prior arrests, and Zack is 16 without a record, they may decide to consider him a Fagin/Oliver Twist kind of thing. In other words, a younger kid influenced or coerced by older individuals. That wouldn't be until next spring at the earliest. In the meantime, he has to go through every hoop and stay out of trouble. Since the other two weren't even granted bail, at least I don't have to worry about him hanging out with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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