Help

[Guest]

I am 17 and my friend who is also 17 is having family abuse and needs to get out of the house. I've told my parents and my aunt and my grandmother's and they all say nothing will work in notifying the authorities. That they see no need of helping her. And I want to go get her and leave with her. We live in KY and we turn 18 in December 2018. I want to know if we stay hidden could we possibly stay hidden until were 18, I don't know how severe the look will be for these circumstances. I know I need to leave with her but I don't know how to go about it. I want to stay in my other friends aunts house cause I know staying hidden in a place unexpected is a good way to go. But other than that I don't know Alot about this.

[ccsmod7]

Thanks for reaching out to NRS (www.1800.runaway.org). Sounds like you’re trying very hard to help your friend who is struggling with family abuse issues. Abuse is an extremely distressing situation for any youth to have to handle and they shouldn’t have to put up with it.

It is a lot of responsibility for you to handle on your own: taking care of your friend to “hide” them, as you say. Here at NRS, we are primarily concerned about you all's safety, and encourage you to think about your friend's and your own safety and plan for it every step of the way.

You mentioned that you are thinking that reaching out to authorities will not help. To learn more about her reporting options to child protective services you might reach out to the confidential child advocates at Child Help 1-800-422-4453. If CPS has already been involved, she does have the right to report each instance of abuse. Sometimes that paper trail of additional reports could help make her case that CPS needs to intervene. If there is any evidence of the abuse such as pictures of injuries and witnesses of the abuse that could also help her with reporting. If your friend is in immediate danger please call 911.

Regarding leaving, If your friend’s parents report their young adult as a runaway, or your family does the same, if the police took any action to find you, they would return you to your home and your friend to their home, most likely. Most states have 18 as the age of majority and it would be up to them to determine if they wanted to take action to find you and your friend. To learn more about how police would respond to your situation, you might call your local non-emergency police number and ask hypothetical questions around how they would handle 17 year old runaway situations.

You might try to give your friend our number (1-800-786-2929) so that we could discuss the situation confidentially and explore any other options or resources that may be of value. We are here 24/7 and want to help.

Thank you for sending your inquiry and best of luck,

-NRS