Our son, Bud, loved cyberschool. During his sophomore and junior years his grades got better, his attitude improved, he started hanging out with friends again. Towards the end of his junior year, Bud decided he wanted to go back to public school for his senior year. We were all very excited about his progress. Some of Bud's friends from junior high had taken a wrong turn in high school and started taking methamphetamines. Bud had no use for that and stopped hanging out with them, although they all parted on good terms.
The problem was that G, the younger brother of one of these boys, had looked up to Bud as a protector and was very resentful when Bud stopped hanging out with G's brother and friends. G is a troubled child - he struggles with mental health and weight issues and his brother's friends would tease him and make him the butt of their jokes. But Bud had always stuck up for G, and G looked at Bud's absence as a betrayal.
Because of his absence, G developed an obsession with Bud. He started texting Bud, demanding that they meet to fight. Bud refused and ignored the texts, until one night in April, G texted Bud and told him to meet to fight that night or G would show up at our house and cause trouble. Bud was understandably scared as G is considerably larger than him, and because of G's emotional instability. My husband, Art, agreed to sit up all night in case G tried to break in, and Bud was finally able to get some sleep. G never showed. We convinced Bud that G was making idle threats and he calmed down for about a month. Then, one night, two of Bud's friends were approaching our house to visit Bud (my husband and I were out for the night.) The friends were met in our driveway by G and his brother, who asked if Bud was home. Bud's friends lied and said Bud was gone to the convenience store. G and his brother went to the convenience store and found out the friends were lying.
After that, G started threatening to fight all of Bud's friends. Another month passed. By now it was summer. One morning Bud and his 3 closest friends got a text from G, with lots of cursing and name-calling, demanding that they all come fight him at once. We all laughed it off. That night, Art & I went out with friends and Bud had his 3 friends over to play video games. About 10 p.m., G and 7 other boys showed up at our house, all dressed in black, and started pounding on the exterior walls and windows of our house screaming for Bud to come out and fight. Fortunately, Bud had the presence of mind to call the police and yell outside that he had done so. G and his friends ran away before the police got there. The police took another "informational report." (see When Older Kids are Bullied - Part 1 ) We now had a new threat against Bud and we had no idea how to deal with it. But we would soon learn...
-Article Contributed by Teressa Morris
