Author Archives: David's Father

I saw my son in handcuffs today.

I saw my son, David, in handcuffs today.  This is the first time.  Fourteen years old. It is heart wrenching to see your child in this position, for some reason I don’t think that this is the last time he will be in this spot. We are trying to break through to him that his actions have consequences. When you steal something, you get in trouble.  When you destroy the property of another, even if it belongs to a family member, there are consequences. Today, I saw my nightmares come true.  No parent wants to see their child in handcuffs.  Will the actions that we took today make a change on his outlook? Sadly, I don’t think so. When the Deputy Sheriff was here, David had huge tears rolling down his face.  After he left? Back to the same old David. Based on the recommendation of the deputy, we put

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A letter to a parent in Georgia

I imagine that right now you are feeling a little anxious.  Maybe you aren’t feeling anything at all. I don’t know your situation, but chances are that if you are reading the things that I write, you have some experience with what I write about.  Maybe not at the depths that we are dealing with, and maybe at a much deeper level than what we are dealing with.  At any rate, it is my hope that you know that you are not alone in your struggles. Never have I claimed to know everything about every situation, and most of the time, I fly by the seat of my pants when dealing with David, however no matter how difficult his behaviors are, no matter how scared I am, we have never, and I mean never locked him in a cage. Now I don’t know the situation that you are dealing with,

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Round Two of the Battle for Services

We are repeatedly told that we need to do more. So we are doing more.  We have added intensive in home therapy, individual therapy, and have ongoing mentor support (staff).  We also are visiting doctors and psychiatrists. I spend my days either on the road to the cities, or at home chasing down this report or that report.  The reports are the WISC, BASC and what not.  It seems like it takes four or five calls to track down who has the report.  Then it takes four or five calls to get them to release the records. Of course, everyone needs a release signed, though we sign them in the Spring of the year.  So I travel in the other direction in order to get those releases signed. Last week, a call was made to the in state facility.  This generated a review of the decision to deny placement of

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