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My question involves juvenile law in the State of: Missouri
Ok so a friend of mine is getting emotionally and mentally abused and wants to move out. She doesn't want anyone to get in trouble, but she knows she has to leave. She has a little brother and a little sister. What can she do? I have already told her she can live with me and she plans to get a job soon. Any Help?????:grumpy:
When she already has a job that is sufficient to pay all of her own expenses, without assistance, that will be plenty of time to be looking at emancipation. Until she has that, she's wasting the court's time even trying. And the courts, who LOOK for reasons to deny emancipation questions, do not like having their time wasted.
Emancipation, despite what you know of the word from your fifth grade social studies class, is not a procedure to liberate children from parental enslavement. It is a recognition of the already independent child who needs relief from certain things forbidden to him (such as entering into contracts for the essentials of life).
We don't "emancipate" abused kids, we find them alternative custody. What you can do for her is encourage her to contact her school counsellor or other authority about any actual abuse. If she can't find any other contact, use 1-800-4-A-CHILD. You and your family assisting her running away can get you into criminal trouble.
(We also recognize that when a teenager thinks they are being emotionally and mentally abused, it often translates to, "Mom and Dad won't let me do everything I want and are requiring me to follow the rules, be in by curfew, and behave like a reasonably civilized being".)