We have been fighting for custody of my step son for about a year now, and can't seem to get anywhere. A little of the background on this is that my 10 yr old step son is cognitive disabled (used to be called mildly mentally retarted). This last summer his mom just up and disappeared for about 2 weeks while the child was here with my husband %26amp; I. She moved out of her home and disconnected her phone. That was in July, we kept him here with us because she refused to tell us where she was living or give a phone number and the child was telling us his mom had been hitting him. In Oct she finally filed a contempt of court order against my husband for not returning him and the court ordered the child returned. We did not see or speak to the child again for 5 weeks. We filed contempt against her and also during the time we had him we filed for a custody change. But these things take time. Since beging to see him again he has come with a black eye, scratches and bruises which he claims his mother caused by hitting him. We called child services and they said that unless the child has new bruises and bruises in different stages of healing on an almost daily basis there is nothing they can do. This last week my step son took 2 knives to school and threatened to cut another childs head off, he is swearing at other children in school, threatening to hit them, refusing to do work, has no friends, having nitemeres...it's horrible. Every Sunday this child cries when it is time to go back to his mothers. We don't know what else to do at this point. We can't take him to counseling because he is only here on weekends. Child services won't do anything, and the school is just as useless. For the knife incidents at school they just made him apologize and told him not to do it again. When he was with us he was a great student, and we did NOT have ANY of these behavior problems.Any advice would be greatly appericiated!!!!! By the way we live in Wisconsin.How to get custody of a child who is being abused.?What would I do....?
Not let him go back one more time to his mother when he is crying. Hide with the child until everything was resolved?
Do internet research of cases where child protective services have failed to do their duty with dire consequences and make sure they see these. Do the same with the school concerning school violence.
Do like a family we used to know from Russia did, show up at the bureaucrats office everyday until you get a solution. It worked. They said they were used to dealing with bureaucracy because of communism.
Get someone to evaluate and counsel him on weekends and make a recommendation to child protective services. Maybe take him to the emergency room for psychiatric care?
Take him to the doctor every time he has an injury and make sure they take photos.
Tell the child that you know something is happening and that you are trying to do something about it.
Call the police and have the boy make a statement?
Call the police about what happened in the school?
Be a squeaky wheel until his custody is changed!How to get custody of a child who is being abused.?Wow thats a tough one. Did you take pictures of the bruises. Did you tell childrens services about how his behaviors are in school now? You really need to get that poor kid out of that situation. good luck!
