Hard Situation

[Megan1]

There is this boy at my school. He is 17. I don't know him, I heard about this from a friend who is very close to him....But now that I know this, I feel like I should do something and I don't know what.

This boy, he is messed up. I thought that he was just a player, but now I know that there is more to it. Aparently, his parents are pretty horrible. They yell at him for EVERYTHING, he has to be perfect. They always throw things, yell, throw his phone, and take his phone away from him and forbid him from talking to extremeley nice people for doing stupid things that aren't even bad- and his mom has punched him (only once that I know of, about a month ago). He gets so stressed over every little thing and can't stay in a relationship, I assume it's because of what is going on with his family. He recently dated a girl for only one day, and when they broke up, it made him so upset that he was throwing up and wanting to die. That is not normal. I don't know this guy, I've only passed him in the hallways at school. But after being told all of this from my friend, I feel like I need to do something. The only problem is, seeing that he is 17, I am afraid that reporting this will do him more harm than good, you know? And what can I possibly report- "This guy's parents are way too strict, and somebody told me that somebody told them that his mom punched him once a month ago." ???? Somehow, I think that wouldn't help anything. But knowing that this boy is suffering, even though I don't know him, I feel the need to do SOMETHING. Help??

[lovely.manifestation]

Hmm, I had a similar situation last year... I wrote an anonymous letter to the counselor, because I thought that the person I was concerned about might do something incredibly stupid/harmful/horrible... the counselor called her in and got her help. Maybe you could try that? If you do, it wouldn't have to be like

"This guy's parents are way too strict, and somebody told me that somebody told them that his mom punched him once a month ago."

but it could be more like the first part of your tread here.

[Casey.]

Writing an anonymous letter to the school counselor might be your best bet here, since you don't even know the boy. You could just put everything you know in the letter, that he thinks he has to be perfect, and he's really upset, and that he has talked about suicide before. The counselor can help him, that's all you can really do is write the letter, or tell his friend to go talk to the counselor.

Take care.