I need to leave this house, no funds, no education

[Unregistered]

In about two weeks I will be turning 17, I live in the state of Texas. I'm currently in my Junior year and I have no job. For some background information as to why I plan on leaving: When I was a child, I was molested by my father for about a year and a half. Right now he's in prison, but it's not by my hand. He was in a child pornography ring, and ICE arrested him for that. Apparently he confessed to molesting me, but they did absolutely nothing to try and counsel me. Whenever I'm in this house, I instantly feel 100x worse. There's a lot of bad memories here. It also doesn't help that I have a rocky relationship with my mother and siblings. I have a few places that I could run off to, but I'm afraid that they'll get in trouble with the law.

I don't know what to do exactly. Is there any night school I could take to graduate early? I really just want to leave asap.

[ccsmod7]

Re: I need to leave the house, no funds, no education

Hello –

Thank you for reaching out and sharing a bit about your situation. It sounds like you are going through a lot right now and would like to leave your home but unsure what would happen if you did. It’s understandable your home holds bad memories for you. We are sorry to hear you had to go through that abuse with your dad. It’s good to hear that he has been arrested but it also sounds like no one made an effort to try and support you and get you resources after the molestation happened. If you should ever want to talk with someone about that you could always reach out to the RAINN (Rape Abuse Incest National Network) Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Do you have anyone supporting you at this time?

You mentioned that you are going to be 17 soon but you are still in high school and would like to finish. If you are trying to finish school early you may be able to look into summer classes or talk with your school to see if they have an accelerated program. It sounds like you would like to leave but not sure how that would work because you are still a minor. 17 is a tricky age as far as if the police will take a report or make you go back home. What that means is sometimes police will take a runaway report if your parent/guardian does not give you permission to leave. Usually if this happens the police will just bring you back home. In Texas it may depend on what county you live in as to whether the police will really follow up on a 17 year old or not. Sometimes the best way to get this information is to call your local police on a non-emergency line and just ask a few questions.

It sounds like things with you and mom are not in a great place as well. Do you feel there is anything that would help make home a better place for you? If you did end up leaving it’s always important to be safe and think about where you would stay, how you would eat, etc.... In the end we can’t make this decision for you but we would be happy to listen and discuss different options and resources. You can always reach out to us directly if you would like to talk about this more in depth. There is always someone here to listen and here to help.