[Always *]

Her parents behaviour is definitely wildly abusive. I'd talk to someone soon like Terabithia said. At the very least it's extremely inappropriate for a parent to threaten you and beat a kid simply cause they do not approve of a friendship. My parents didn't approve of plenty of my high school friends. In their defense, those friends used drugs or had other noticeable problems. Yet if I continued any how my parents never did anything but hum and haw about it. But clearly you know that the reaction at hand is very abnormal. I'm just thinking if all they did was disapprove, yeah, that'd hurt, but it's the way out there stuff that's obviously disturbing.

Even if the parents weren't beating her for being friends with you the fact their threatening you is reason enough to follow through with some kind of professional consultation. (counsellors, cops, etc.) I would start by talking to your friend and letting her know you'd like to do something about what's happening, and since her getting beaten means she's being very hurt by it you should definitely talk to a counsellor first. Maybe you guys should keep your communication on the DL till school comes back in, just make sure that her parents won't be breathing down her neck and catching her, but maybe makes sure that she communicates and lets you know she's ok so you won't have to worry as much but have her delete messages right away.

You might want to talk to the guidance counsellor about whether or not you should speak to the police. That way if they DO try talking to the cops and accusing you of tons of shit you already have gone to them and let them know what's going on, that way they don't exagerate stuff and make the situation sound wildly inaccurate. I say you should speak to someone like a counsellor first because if you go to the cops they might HAVE to pursue action even before your friend can say if she really wants it.

But your friend does deserve to be safe, so that might be the best bet. But that leads me to the second point. Can your friend come stay with you or someone else? She might want to have somewhere safe lined up to take off to if it gets out of control.