Saturday, September 3, 2011

The Creeper

I  like to know what's happening in my children's worlds (yes, they each have one of their own of which they are the center).  One of my favorite ways is by checking them and their friends out on Facebook. Whenever I find out something interesting I ask about it.  My predilection for being an informed parent has earned me an affectionate nickname, "The Creeper".  I didn't mind at all this new moniker of mine, it reminded me of an episode of "Scooby Doo".  Now it seems we might have a genuine creeper on our hands and there is absolutely nothing cute or cartoonish about it.

My daughter has a problem with a boy, usually I don't worry about trouble with boys,  you know it seems to come part and parcel with teenage girls.  But this past Tuesday evening a young man showed up at the front door asking to speak with Allison.  I asked his name and business  and Allison came down to see what he needed. Sometimes it's obvious that someone has issues and although I couldn't name the reason something about this boy struck me as just NOT right. Know what I mean? Anyway after he left Allison said, "I think he has a crush on me because I spoke to him on the bus".  He had walked from his home about a 1/2 mile away to see her.  That was the beginning of a what has become quite a strange week for my daughter.

She didn't know that by showing a modicum of kindness to this boy, he would become obsessed with her. The thing that is concerning is not just the fact the he now waits outside her classes to follow her everywhere she goes at school but that he was expelled previously for bringing a knife to school and pulling it on another kid.  Now that he has become her shadow, people are telling her things that she didn't know when it was "kind of sweet" that he seemed to like her.  Not only did he have this one documented episode of violent outburst, he seems to still be focused on cutting and hurting/killing people.  I am trying to take all this in with a grain of  salt, since not 100% of what we hear is true but the initial episode was the real deal.

Allison is becoming a bit fearful, I believe.  Since he lives so close it is not something that can be left at the school doors. She is spending the weekend with her grandmother as an effort to avoid him over the weekend. If you have been in a similar situation or have advice to offer please do.  We don't know how to proceed.  Should we just wait this thing out a while and try to let it run it's course, hoping he will become discouraged by her lack of interest  or do we need to address it now in someway?

We need some guidance on dealing with this situation.