What do I do with this info?

[sunhuntin]

social worker would be a good start. i would keep a dictophone handy and try and record some of what he says [even if you have to tape for an hour to get one sentence] cos it could be useful. be better if he didnt know about the tape cos kids tend to ham it up when they know they are being taped.

[Genie]

Last year a young boy in my daughter's class left his sweatshirt at school, he is now dead. He took 3 days to die, step father is now in jail, a tragic story.

Even if the young fella is making it up you still need to act, no smoke without fire and a child's life is not worth the risk.

If I was in your situation I would talk to the young lads teacher in the first instance.

[peasea]

Last year a young boy in my daughter's class left his sweatshirt at school, he is now dead. He took 3 days to die, step father is now in jail, a tragic story.

Even if the young fella is making it up you still need to act, no smoke without fire and a child's life is not worth the risk.

If I was in your situation I would talk to the young lads teacher in the first instance.

That's actually not a bad idea, they very soon get a grasp on what the child is like regarding honesty etc. Also, the teacher might have some suggestions (like school counsellor or chaplin etc) that tread very softly in such situations. CYF's would be my very last port of call, they tend to be boneheads.

+1 Genie; teacher first.

[McDuck]

I dont know if tapeing isa good idea, i would tell the cyfs worker what you know and tell them as much as you can about the big sisters arm, there should be an acident report and then they can flag the family for anything else that comes up, dont try to wade into it too much, let the people who know about it deal with it (as in ask them what you should do...)

[rustyrobot]

Thanks everyone. My first thought was to call CYPS but really didn't want to put the family through the ringer if it was ungrounded. I KNOW for sure there has been domestic violence at home, so adds weight to what the boy said. Also I can't emphasize enough how casually he came out with the information when I asked him. Didn't make a big deal out of it, didn't embellish it, and that's what struck me. Totally dumb-founded when he first told me, and I really felt the need to tell someone, so thank you anonymous folk of kiwibiker. Will talk to social worker tomorrow and my son's teacher. Genie, your tale is both sad and very sobering. It makes me appreciate so much our happy family (warts and all).

[Genie]

Strange thing about kids is that what we adults know to be some damn serious stuff, to them ,it's sometimes quite matter-of-fact and they can be extremely blase about stuff. If violence is part of his daily life it won't be such a big deal as he knows of nothing else.
My eyes have begun to be truely opened over the last month working within the school environment....I'm truely blessed with my children and appreciate them so much more. Our children are our blessings and our gifts, to which it is our duty to cherish and love them always.

I do hope things go well for you tomorrow.

[neels]

You can make an anonymous call to cyfs, just tell them that it has come from the kid and you can't confirm that it's true, leave it with them from there. Better to let someone know and have it come to nothing than find out something bad has happened because you did nothing.

They can be quite discreet, someone notified them about us a while ago (not for child abuse by the way) they contacted the headmaster at the school. After he had talked to them he rang to let us know (which he wasn't really supposed to do), he told them that there was nothing to it and we never heard anything else about it.

Give them credit for sometimes getting it right, and it's better to be safe than sorry.