The following article has nothing to do with foster care or adoption, that I know of, except that I could easily see this happening in my house.

In this story out of Florida a 15 year old boy threatened his mother with a knife and hit his older brother with a stick of sugar cane after changes were made to his privileges on the home computer. His mother called the police and he was charged with aggravated assault and battery.

Oh, this scene has played out in my home in various forms and over similarly minor things. When Sammy was about 10 or 11 years old, he had a 45 minute rage because I told him to use hot water to make his instant oatmeal. He threw things, screamed, cursed, kicked walls, etc. and terrorized the house. I was the only one home at the time.

What gets me about this story is that this child hit his OLDER brother. Simply having my husband present in the house was usually enough to help stem Sammy’s rages. At the time my husband was bigger than Sammy, so Sammy was intimidated by him. Things would not be the same now. Sammy is now 6 feet tall and about 150 pounds. He is taller than anyone else in the house. I have no doubt he would go after my husband if he were angry, and that’s where this story gets me. This 15 year old obviously have some mental health issues. The fact that he pulled a knife after his mother and hit his older brother is enough testimony to that, but the fact that he is not intimidated by his older brother has me wondering

The article says that the 15 year old felt threatened by his mother and older brother. I think it was the other way around. If this young man truly felt threatened, I have to wonder if there are mental health issues that are not being addressed. Is there some type of paranoia, bi-polar or other disorder that might make this child violent? The article is brief and does not say that there are mental health issues, but at the very least this child has anger management issues.

If Florida follows what so many other states do, social services will now be involved in this child’s life, if they haven’t been already. I hope they are able to offer some services to this family.



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