Abuse in Florida

I have a friend who is 15 years old and lives in FL. His dad has abused him since he was 3 years old. His mom emotionally abuses him and is hateful and rude. He has a younger brother who is 11 and is autistic and an older sister who is in college. Neither one of them get abused.

He wants to run away to live with me in New York without his parents knowing anything about it. But of course my parents say no because of the laws and how they can get in trouble. I keep telling him about social services but he is afraid that they will take his brother out of the home too and that it will ruin his brothers life. Which he doesn't want because his brother doesn't get hurt by his parents.

My question is... What if his parents never catch him if he does run away? And another one if he does decide to call Social Services is there anyway that when he is 16 they will let him out of the system and let them move in with us? And will they leave his brother in the home?

I'm afraid for his life... He's depressed and his dad just keeps getting worse. I'm afraid that if his dad doesn't kill him he's going to kill himself if he doesn't get out of the house. But he told me he won't admit to the abuse to anyone because he doesn't think the cops or social services can help him. He thinks it will make his life worse... What can I do?

My sister told me to call his school and talk to the guidance councler and make a statement without saying my name about how I'm afraid he's abused and ask if they can check up on him every once in awhile. Or call social services and have them check in. The only problem is he won't go along with it and he'll deny everything... Please Help... I'm incredibly confused and he keeps begging me to help him. I feel like he put his heart and his life in my hands and I don't want to crush him anymore then everyone else already has! Thank you!

-Confused

Your friend needs to try to get help through child protective services. If your friend's father consents, your friend's parents could execute a guardianship in favor of your parents(?) and your friend could legally move in with you.

Talk to the guidance counciler and have her talk to child protective services WITH you. Even though your friend is afraid and may deny everything, CPS has investigators that are trained to tell when the children are acting out of fear. When a child is truely terified of the parent/s, it is usually very easy to see this in the childs eyes. They will also talk to him outside of the presence of his parents, so this may ease his fears. In cases where CPS doesn't take immediate custody of the child, anything the child says to them is kept confidential. The parents would not know what the child says until if or when CPS actually takes actions against the parents. CPS will make every effort possible to come up with evidence outside of the childs testimony to prove their case so that any statement the child makes to them is never shared with the parent.