what can I do?

[miss_confused99]

My stepfather is abusive to my 16 year old brother. It's mostly emotional and mental abuse, but yesterday for the second time he was physically abusive. He threw my brother into a wall because the boy asked him to please not yell at his sister. My 18 year old sister called the cops and they said they couldn't do anything because the father was disciplining the son. They also called child services who sent someone to the school today to talk to my brother. I also called child services because I'd been witness to some of the verbal abuse which has been going on for years. I told them how I was afraid that my stepfather may really hurt my brother. They said that there isn't enough evidence of abuse for them to even talk to the father. They won't do anything! I don't know if there is any other agency that I can call that might help them. I'm 3000 miles away and don't have the money to fly there and fight for custody. I'd really hate to see it come to that anyway because we lost our mother and the kids need their father. But I wish there was some way to force the father to take parenting classes, anger management classes, or something.

[sammy girl]

is it his real father?

[miss_confused99]

Our mother died 5 years ago.

[sammy girl]

i'm sorry...

 

is this his biological father?

[miss_confused99]

Yes, he is my brother's biological father.

[Flux]

If you're sister is also worried, could you ask her to try and get some evidence. Voice recording ect. This way you have evidence against him.

 

Though your brother and sister probably need a parent around, they don't if he is treating them like this. What is the age where a child can leave home without having to go into care? In the UK its 16, but I'd imagine it would be higher in the states.

 

Though, what I will advise, is perhaps advising your brother to take self-defense lessons this way if his father attacks him, he has some way of getting out and stopping it from happening.

 

Has your stepfather always been violent towards him? or violent in general? And Does he have a drinking or drug problem? If you don't mind me asking.

[miss_confused99]

I believe the age a child can move out of their parents house without placement is 18 unless that child is emancipated. My brother is now trying to get emancipated and is staying with a friend. But I don't know how long his father will allow him to stay with the friend until he calls the cops and has them force him to come home.

 

The father doesn't have a drinking or drug problem and generally hasn't been violent. But he does have quite a temper. An episode like this happened about a year ago. The only thing that connects this incident with the prior one is the woman he's dating. He was dating her then and they broke up and now they are back together. When he's with her he's different toward his children. I can't explain it and honestly I don't care what's going on with him. My only concern is my siblings.

 

Oh and about self-defense. My brother is bigger than his father and stronger. He's not afraid of him. He did push him back. The only worry comes from the knowledge that the father is aware the boy can stop him in a hand to hand fight and is more likely to attack him with a weapon if his temper gets the best of him again.