a child's cry for help

[GoldenRivet]

today, i picked up my step daughter from after school care and while she was organizing her book bag and getting things packed up to leave the campus she waded up a piece of notebook paper, handed it to me and asked if i could throw it away. i saw drawing and text on the crumpled up paper and thought it might be a love note or a bad grade she didnt want to come to light.

i asked her, "what is this?" as i un-crumpled the paper. "its something my friend gave to me" she continued with gathering her things

i looked it over and it appeared to be a frame by frame comic type cartoon called "Mike's life." The cartoon drawn in stick figure shows a woman laying in a bed, and a doctor holding a baby. the woman says "Kill it" and the doctor says "we can adopt it" the frames progress indicating that the baby is "too ugly and stupid to adopt" the frames further progress to show the kid asking a girl to be his friend to which she replies with something to the effect of "you're gross go away"

later, the boy is shown in his bedroom with tears raining out, he creates a noose, and hangs himself with tears still flowing out. in the next frame he is no longer crying and a large amount of red blood is seen flowing from his neck while there is knocking at the door.

i asked is "mike" the name of the kid that made this and gave it to you? she said that it was and asked me again to trash it. I wadded it up and put it in my pocket while she was not looking.

I stopped by my wife's work on the way home. given that i am not home 75% of the year i am not sure who these kids are or their parents or what their situations are. certainly my wife is the expert on the social settings of my step daughters school. i explained the situation to my wife and gave her the paper, we are all three going to discuss it when she gets home momentarily.

this bothered me a lot. Am i over reacting? i dont have a lot of experience with kids other than what i have gained over the past few years... but it would be incredibly reckless and irresponsible IMHO not to at least bring this to his teacher's attention... or find out who his parents are and make them aware.

we are going to figure out what to do this evening

very sad situation, I feel it is urgent to say or do something though

[Commander Wallace]

It certainly seems like the human and responsible thing to do. " Mike " is obviously dealing with some issue. It could be something as " innocent " as his seeing something on TV or perhaps overhearing something.

You never mentioned your step daughters age but speaking in general terms, a younger kid is probably not going to have the emotional strength to deal with anything that's really complicated. Something apparently drew " red flags " for you.

Trust your instincts. Who knows what if anything is going on but taking the steps you are is no doubt coming from a place of caring.

I hope it all works out well for Mike and everyone involved.

[Rockstar]

No, you are not over reacting. If anything you are being a responsible adult, compassionate, and involved in your childs life. You daughter will see what you're doing and will learn from it. Great job.

[August]

Maybe you are and maybe you aren't GR but you wouldn't want to ignore it then find out later he committed suicide.

[GoldenRivet]

You never mentioned your step daughters age but speaking in general terms, a younger kid is probably not going to have the emotional strength to deal with anything that's really complicated. Something apparently drew " red flags " for you.

Trust your instincts. Who knows what if anything is going on but taking the steps you are is no doubt coming from a place of caring.

I hope it all works out well for Mike and everyone involved.

She is 10, we consulted with a friend of ours who is the assistant police chief where we live, he recommended we tell the school counselor and the school security officer (who is a police liaison) we did, apparently they sent someone to the kid's house this evening to speak with his parents.

the boy's father apparently is "gone away". according to my step daughter rumor is he has been sent to "prison" or jail - whatever the case, the father is not present in the kid's life. The mother indicated to the officer that she is aware of the boy's problem and the child is already in counseling and that she will keep a closer eye on the boy.

seems we have done about as much as we can do. we are supposed to provide the drawing to the school tomorrow morning.

[Commander Wallace]

Hopefully, " Mike " won't feel backed into a corner or that he did something wrong. That may have the unintended consequences of " Mike " concealing things next time. You did all you can do.

With Facebook, Twitter, social media of all types and online bullying , it has to be hard on kids and almost impossible for the parents to keep their bearings.

Rockstar was right. Your daughter learned a valuable lesson with regards to caring and compassion for others from you and your wife and " Mike " may have as well. Well done.


Hopefully, Mike and his family will get it all worked out in short order.


Thanks for keeping us updated.

[fireftr18]

Sounds like you did the right thing. Something else to think about, your daughter may have meant for you to look at it, but wasn't sure how to go about asking. Why would she specifically ask you to throw it out instead of doing it herself. Your instinct told you something was up.
How about some prayers for the boy and his mother.

[GoldenRivet]

Sounds like you did the right thing. Something else to think about, your daughter may have meant for you to look at it

we spoke with her about it. She fessed up that she wanted someone to know but didn't want to be a "tattle tale" we assured her that it would be ok if she was more up front in the future about things especially concerning someone's safety

She is concerned that kids will make fun of him over this, we have promised her that the only people that know about it are us, and the obvious chain of command that has been told and that they certainly would not spread it around the student body

at this point she doesn't want to talk about it anymore so we are respecting that.

in the morning the drawing will be handed over to the school and we will be removed from the situation.

it is a shame that children - of all people - harbor feelings of hurting themselves, but a reality in our world nonetheless. I'm just glad we recognized it and acted immediately... makes you wonder how many similar scenarios fall through the cracks

[Oberon]

It's a sad situation, I think you did all you could do and that you definitely made the right choice there. It seems even in the relatively short period since I left school that the environment has rapidly changed, particularly with the encroachment of social media and the internet where mistakes and problems can never be erased. I'm glad that I dodged that time, school can be tough enough without the extra ammunition that the internet has given bullies.
I hope 'Mike' can get through this.