Posted on 02/05/2015 2:53:23 PM PST by Responsibility2nd
Williamsburg, Va. – Kimberlyn Williams feels unsafe in her own home because of her 12-year-old son.
“I am his mother and I do love him, but he`s dangerous,” Williams says.
She says he’s so dangerous that she is prepared to face jail time to keep him out of the house, to not only protect herself, but her two younger children.
“I have been hit, bit, kicked,” she says. “He has threatened to stab children at school, to kill them. He has these outbursts.”
She says her son is now at Riverside Behavioral Health Center in Hampton. He was put there after Williams called police last week because of what she says she witnessed between her son and four-year-old daughter.
“When I went in, I found him exposing himself to her and trying to coerce her to touch him,” Williams says.
Williams says that was the final straw after years of violent and inappropriate behavior, and years of trying to get him the help he needs.
“It`s not a case of us not trying to get him help,” she says. “This is not an isolated incident. It’s been a gauntlet of doctors and medications and diagnoses.”
Her son is set to be released Thursday, but Williams does not want to bring him home.
“If I do not show up to get him, I will face criminal charges or child abandonment,” she says.
Williams says Child Protective Services told her if she refuses to take him, her son would be placed in a 24-hour supervision residential facility — something she’s wanted all along. She says it would take police arresting her to get her wish.
“I want something to get done,” Williams says. “I don`t want it to be you take this one and you risk your other children’s health and safety or you go to jail. There has to be a better way.”
To get her son the help he needs, Williams says she’s prepared to face the consequences.
“Nobody wants to talk about this,” she says. “It`s something we would certainly consider a private family issue, but along those lines maybe it can help other people.”
Neither James City County Police nor CPS will comment
If someone is mentally unstable so that they are a life-threatening danger to themselves or others ... that has to be legally established, and the requirements to establish that should be EXTREMELY RIGOROUS before anyone should be declared such. If the parents think he is, then it’s their responsibility to establish it. BUT while he is a minor and in their family, they should be the ones responsible for it, financially.
_________________
Ok say that it is true family must take control.
What can family do?
One cannot lock the kid in his room, that is abuse.
One cannot tie the kid up, that is abuse.
One cannot overmedicate the kid, that is abuse.
Exactly how are they supposed to care for little crazy?
It s horribly difficult to get someone “committed.” We went through this with an aunt who refused medical treatment, and was coming down with dementia. Once we finally got the legal control of the situation, having her removed from the house was one of the worst moments of my life.
I know of three families in our general area where a parent shot and killed their mentally ill child and then committed suicide.
Well that should satisfy you, they took their problems into their own hands.
The boy has threatened to kill kids at school and has exposed himself to his little sister. He has kicked, hit, and bitten his mother. That’s not a “family matter,” that’s criminal behavior. This may echo what post 61 says, but in order for the family to take care of this matter the family needs to be allowed to use more force and restraint than is currently legal.
Exactly. It's too bad that some people seem to take a perverse pleasure in lecturing others about what "they should do", when it's clear they've never been in a situation beyond their own ability to cope.
I was always against that.
Of course it’s true that the family must take responsibility ... at least it’s so if one maintains that the state must stay out of family affairs and business, and that the state has no business intruding into the family ... which is the position that I see conservatives insist on.
I’m just saying that one cannot talk out of both sides of their mouth and say the state has to stay out ... and then ... say the state must step in. It just doesn’t fit the conservative position (to say the state must step in).
SO while it may be may very well be legitimate question as to what you do, and it may be extremely difficult ... I don’t think the conservative position is to say to the state to “stay out of my family” ... unless it’s just too hard for me to deal with ... :-) ...
Appy, most foster parents don't have the skills for this and most states lack the common sense to do proper placements. A Foster Dad in my state ended up with an involuntary manslaughter conviction because DCS did an improper placement of a teen who had tried to strangle a previous foster mother.
The foster dad had to place the teen in a hold for his families protection until help arrived and the boy struggled so violently it killed him. DCS made the man their scapegoat. This involved a troubled teen with a history of mental issues and violence. DCS also did not inform the new FP of the danger. Even at that and with the judge chiding DCS he was still convicted. DCS made sure they placed the blame on the man.
No these kids at least until they can be stabilized belong in a secured professional inpatient care facility and then determine the actual level of care they need once there. As for cost? Most of the time it is out of the families reach. As for precedents in these extreme cases of state stepping in and funding such a facility it's well over 100 years old. The facilities are being closed right and left and the idiot Chest Thumping Morons who pushed to have them closed have not one single clue as to the disaster it has created.
There isn't really that high a number needing that level of care. These are extreme cases many times where child due to brain damaged during their forming in the womb or an illness has damaged their brain. As such they can not discern many needed attributes such as understanding right from wrong nor can they many times be taught. They will face an institutional life which is not near as cruel and insane as turning them loose on the streets or to family who doesn't have the means or skills to pay for or give themselves the necessary help.
You’re just begging for someone to call you an a**hole, aren’t you?
I don’t believe it’s a conservative position to commit a crime!
Does that change the conservative position of the state staying out of family affairs?
Thank you for reminding us to pray for this family.
Or possessed.
The problem there ... with our US Constitution is that one cannot have their freedoms taken away without due process ... and being locked up in a mental facility is very much as much a prison as a “prison” is. There is a VERY HIGH STANDARD per the U.S. Constitution before the government takes away freedoms and rights! We MUST maintain that and never turn into the (former) Soviet Union in which they USED “mental illness” as a convenient way to get rid of people!
IOW, yes, you’re begging for someone to call you an a**hole.
Consider it done.
“’m just saying that one cannot talk out of both sides of their mouth and say the state has to stay out ... and then ... say the state must step in. It just doesn’t fit the conservative position (to say the state must step in).
SO while it may be may very well be legitimate question as to what you do, and it may be extremely difficult ... I don’t think the conservative position is to say to the state to “stay out of my family” ... unless it’s just too hard for me to deal with ... :-) ...”
Well it obviously is too hard for her to deal with, that’s why she asked for help.
Maybe the boy should have been aborted huh?
because the costs of residential treatment are unreachable for average people. Check it out. Thousands PER DAY and no insurance - or 3 days inpatient is what our insurance offered
giving up custody of a child like this is the only way to get him the help he needs.... or at least keep him off the streets
that is why a lot of fosters never adopt, they can’t afford to take on the medical care
Then you’re calling the conservative position of fighting to GET THE STATE OUT OF THE FAMILY ... that. You really can’t have it both ways ... and sure there is going to be a “cost” to maintaining and fighting for the conservative position.
You can’t set up government institutions meant to intrude inside of families and “ask them in” in situations you find to be very difficult ... and then expect this government institution to NOT INTRUDE wherever THEY see a problem. You have to CUT IT OFF AT THE ROOT!
If someone adopted him they have to be willing to face getting him into inpatient residential treatment
Not many adopters have the resources to spend hundreds of thousands in medical bills (or maybe tens of thousands in a residential group treatment facility for a kid who may actually never get well and may not spend any time in their home bonding with them
But maybe you’d like to offer to adopt a RAD or a psychotic or a schizo or a severe bipolar as the plan for the rest of your life?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.