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Legal Options for a Runaway

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  • 09-23-2007, 07:34 AM
    Uncle J
    Legal Options for a Runaway
    In behalf of my niece in georgia I am trying to see what her legal options are.
    She is 17 and will be 18 in Feb.
    She ran away from an abusive father (verbal, emotional, sometimes physical and suspicions of sexual abuse at an early age).
    The father kicked her out several times and then calls the police to report her as runaway. Recently he locked her out and smashed her cell phone. She called police to help her get back in to get her things and they turned it around on her, making it seem she was bad and that if she leaves home she will go to jail.
    Well now she has left home and is too scared to go home or go to school for fear the police will take her from school to jail.
    She is an honor student who, without exaggerating, has not missed a day of school in her life. She has now been out for a week, hiding out.
    She doesn't really want to go back home.
    I would like to know what options she has if she doesn't want to go home and doesn't want trouble with the police.
    Can she safely turn herself in and not be dragged to jail?
    If she can't feel safe at home what can she do at this point and can she safely go back to school?
  • 09-23-2007, 07:51 AM
    Baystategirl
    Re: legal options for a runaway
    Where is her mother? Has child protection services ever been notified of the sexual/physical abuse? Where is she staying now?
  • 09-23-2007, 08:06 AM
    Uncle J
    Re: legal options for a runaway
    the police have been called to their house several times in the past but the children and mother are too scared to say anything.
    they are a cambodian family that immigrated here when the children were young. the parents don't speak much english, but the father understands a lot more than he lets on. he threatens them all right in front of the police because they dont understand what he's saying in cambodian.
    another child has already been taken out of the house and is living with her older sister
    being foreigners i don't know that the police even care to do much, they have never brought an interpreter with them when they go there.
    the neice i'm talking about has been staying with different friends.
    whats worse is now she is with a boy who is 22 and he is basically homeless and has been involved in stealing.
  • 09-23-2007, 08:43 AM
    panther10758
    Re: legal options for a runaway
    Even if family will not state abuse there could still be evidence of said abuse. CPS should be contacted so they may investigate
  • 09-23-2007, 09:05 AM
    Uncle J
    Re: legal options for a runaway
    i think the father is smarter now about the law, he knows not to hit because he could go to jail, but he does threaten to kill them if they report anything, he uses his scare tactics
    another attorney recently told me she should contact the police to tell them she isn't a runaway and have them meet her at the house to show them she is there and not running away and also she shouldn't fear going to school because they would not put her in jail for a week as they said, they may just hold her till her parents come - is that correct?

    we advised our niece follow the above advise and to go back to school and that we could call the police as well to back up what she tells them
    i just wish they could get an interpreter there to hear his threats toward her
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