Child Custody Of A 17 Year Old?

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Kentucky

I'm not even sure if this is the right place for this..

My question is posted on behalf of myself and my husband. My stepson has lived with us off and on for the past 4 yrs, he is now 17 yrs old..Basically every time he didn't like our rules or we tried to get him help for his angry outbursts his mother would either drive here from the state she lived in to get him or send him a plane ticket. She has legal full custody of him and has refused to sign over any rights to us, any time we have started the process she has come to get the boy.

Anyway he was living here up until Feb.2007 then went back to her after having a violent outburst with my husband. He lived there up until October 2007 then called here wanting to come back, talking about how much better off he is here and how if he had to stay there he would kill himself. So we fell for it and he came back, by this time his mother had him on medication for bipolar etc..

Well he's not taking his meds, refuses to take them..will not come home at curfew, is disrespectful and down right nasty to his father...he told us he did not want to live with us but wanted to live on his own which we cannot allow because he is not 18 yet. He called his mom begging her to let him come back and she won't let him come back..She basically told us to deal with him how ever we had to because she cannot let him back in her house yet she has full custody. We can't just let him leave but he is destroying our house and our family. We have 2 younger children here and his outbursts and attitude is causing all types of issues and we are stressed out. We've started taking him to a mediator who is trying to help us but he told her that he does not want to live with us anymore and that if they make him he's going to kill himself.

She says that we can take out a beyond control order on him but he will just run away again. What I need to know is since we don't have any custody of him at all and his mom does have custody and won't let him live with her what rights do we have if any? What if he does run away and gets into trouble, who's responsible for that her or us?

We are desperate. :(

Baker Act him. Since he is threatening suicide, have him committed. That will get him even more help, give him some time to think about this "living on his own" nonsense, and you and your H time to regroup and figure out how you're going to handle the situation.

The only other alternative I see is to wait until he does something stupid like running away then have a Juvenile Petition take against him for his arrest; which, in turn, will result in him being committed anyway.