I premise this by stressing that I am a new member and in agreement with forum rules, I am not looking for legal advice - just a way to vent my frustrations to people who might understand. I’m sure the outcome will eventually be fine, but the stress might knock a few years off our lives and may forever change our outlook on life
My 16-year-old son, who exhibits motor tics, vocal tics, and autistic stimming behaviours, recently studied in a quiet library quite normally for one hour without interacting or seeing anyone. Five days later we learned he has been accused of masturbating by another library user who heard his tics and observed his arms briefly moving from a distance and wrongly concluded he was masturbating. The library management passed the report to the Child Protection Agency who in turn passed the report on to the police to investigate. We don't know who the accuser is. My son has not yet been asked to explain his actions and the security camera footage has not yet been viewed after 3 long and gruelling weeks. Of course, just asking my son why he was making such noises and why his hands were moving and asking him whether they can view the footage with parental consent would have cleared things up in a very short time frame. Having to go through a multi-week police investigation process where his case is handed from department to department without anyone caring is such an unfortunate, traumatic and stressful experience that is having hugely negative effects on our health. My son is mentally very strong, but I can imagine some other children being driven to suicide by such embarrassment. In the meantime, we have no help and can’t talk to anyone for fear of our reputations being ruined. Is this the right way of doing things because from our point of view, it seems absolutely crazy and we are really struggling?
We're based in Ireland so the Child protection agency is TUSLA and the 'police' should read 'Garda'