Fighting for Answers | Author Archives | Page 42David's Father, Author at Fighting for Answers

Informal Adjustment Conference aka Juvenile Court

Today we received notice of a conference with a Judicial Referee regarding two of the charges that David has accumulated this summer. The others include multiple charges of unruly, forgery, and theft of property. I shared it with David, because until now he seems to think that he is immune to action against him for his actions toward others. I explained that at 14, he could go to juvenile jail. And that if he went to juvenile jail at 14, there is a chance that he could end up spending the rest of his life in a prison of some kind. Mostly due to the fact that when people upset him, he lets his anger take over, and doesn’t stop until the anger burns itself out. Imagine trying to corral that type of behavior in a prison environment with a bunch of other people who may or may not share

Interruptions – Interruptions – Interuptions

One of the more difficult non-violent behaviors that we deal with everyday is David’s incessant need to put himself into any conversation taking place. If Mom and I are in the kitchen talking, he will be hiding around the corner listening in, because we “might be talking about David.” If I say that I am going to run an errand, he wants to know if that means he is going to placement, or safe bed, or what have you, depending on his behavior. Do you know how difficult it is to have any kind of adult conversation with a 14 year old boy, who has a mentality of someone less than half his age, in the area? Any he gets paranoid. No matter how often we tell him that what we are talking about has nothing to do with him, he remains convinced that it is all about him. Through

when it rains, it pours

Ah, the old cliche. When it rains, it pours. Did you know that this phrase hearkens back to an advertisement from the Morton Salt company? This evening, when Mom called to let us know that she was on her way home from work, David started acting up. I now know why. See, he stole an old cell phone from his mom’s dresser drawer. And he tried to hide it. In the process the dog went missing from his tie out. Which he tried to blame on the “bad people in town”. More on the dog story later. Back to the cell phone. David swears that if we would provide him with a cell phone of his own, he would stop stealing them. How do I reward a negative behavior with a positive item? When he was in safe bed he wrote a long detailed letter about why he should get