She punched me this evening, at which point I told Superman to call the police. Two officers responded. When the first gal arrived Diva was standing on a chair in her room holding a broom stick (without the brush part attached). Kinda weird, I guess, and the officer asked her why she was standing on the chair. "Because I can." Whatever.
Then a second officer, a young man, showed up. I'm really glad they were both here. She screamed and cussed at them. The guy spoke firmly at her and demanded that she show respect for us, her parents. She essentially laughed in his face, except she wasn't laughing.
Superman refrained from punching her. He was in her personal space with his fist drawn back, but I told him "Don't do it!" He listened. I'm so proud of him. It was difficult for him to resist punching her. She screamed really loudly right in my ear. That hurt. She shoved me a few times, shoved her dad, too. Then when I still wouldn't get out of her room she started swinging punches at me, hitting me in the back and chest. It's almost 1 a.m. now, and this happened around 9 in the evening, and my chest hurts a little bit. It may bruise a bit, but probably not much if at all.
I realize that this report is disjoint. I'm writing what I remember as I think of it, so most if it isn't in the order it occurred.
Both of the officers tried to talk to her and get her to calm down, to no avail. They were in her room with her, Superman and I were in the living room, next to her room. Her room is the first one off the hall, just past the living room, so we were very close. But we'd stepped out of her room when the female officer suggested Diva might calm down and talk to her if we weren't right there. She didn't.
Both of the officers stepped out of her room to talk to us, and Diva stormed out of her room and out the front door. The male officer asked us if she was allowed to go outside, and I said no, she needs to be inside now. She was still carrying the broom stick. He went out to tell her to come inside. She refused (with profanities) so he took her by the arm to lead her back in. She exploded, and hit him with the broomstick. And maybe with her fists, I'm not sure. They were on the other side of the truck in the driveway and it was dark, so I couldn't see what happened. She did beat on him, though, and he filed an assault charge on her for assaulting an officer. I filed one, too, and they also charged her with resisting arrest. It took both of the officers to wrestle her to the ground to put handcuffs on her. Then they led her to the patrol car. The female officer stayed with her at the car trying to talk to her, and ended up putting her in a choke hold or something (I was a bit unclear on the details) to get her to calm down and shut up.
The male officer, after being assaulted by this mouthy 13 year old, called his captain to ask about putting her in custody tonight. There isn't anyplace near here to lock up juveniles. As far as I know, the only juvenile detention facility is in Columbia, the state capital. It's not quite two hours from here. There's a county jail here, of course, but they don't put juveniles there. Thankfully. As much as I think she needs to be locked up (or detained somehow) I really don't want her in jail with adults, even overnight.
They drove Diva away from home in handcuffs in the back of a police patrol car. I had to go downtown to the station to talk to a woman from the county DJJ (Department of Juvenile Justice) before they could take her to kiddie jail. I sat there in the captain's office with the captain, the female officer, and Diva. By then Diva was subdued and had that far-away "nobody's home" look in her eyes. She was there maybe 15 minutes before I got there, and the captain told me that she was totally unresponsive when they tried to get any information from her.
Poor Superman was a basket case. Sproing has been acting up a lot lately, being strongly oppositional (but not violent to people... he damages property, but hasn't hit anyone around here) and loud and sassy. It's been bad. Superman has been on the edge of a nervous breakdown for a few days now. He didn't look so good this evening. Before I went to the police station I gave him a dose of his benzodiazepine. Our therapist told our doctor to prescribe some for him but he never took any. He did get the script filled, though, and I'm glad he did. 'Cause he needed it tonight! FYI, (from Wikipedia)
Benzodiazepines enhance the effect of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which results in sedative, hypnotic (sleep-inducing), anxiolytic (anti-anxiety), anticonvulsant, muscle relaxant and amnesic action.[2] These properties make benzodiazepines useful in treating anxiety, insomnia, agitation, seizures, muscle spasms...
I was gone for about an hour or so, and when I got home Superman was still awake, but he was r-e-l-a-x-e-d. He'd been trying to read my previous post, but kept reading the same sentence over and over. He's funny when he's high. What with the amnesic action of the Lorazepam he probably won't remember much if anything of what we talked about tonight. He will undoubtedly remember The Diva Show, though. That's hard to forget.
The next step for her is to go before a judge. Juvenile Court is being held in an adjoining county tomorrow*, but I don't know yet if she will be on the docket. If she doesn't go to court tomorrow she'll go Monday. No Juvie Court on Friday. I'd rather they waited until Monday. I think it will do her good (?) to cool her heels in kiddie jail for a long weekend. Perhaps it'll teach her a lesson. She has no clue how good she's had it here. She thinks we're horrible restrictive parents. HA! Our main faults are being too lenient. The kid needs an education.
I don't know what's to become of her. Once a kid hits the DJJ system it's really easy to go there again. (This is my hypothesis, anyway.) The first time handcuffed in the back of a patrol car is hard. The second time is easier. Etc. I wish it didn't turn out this way. I wish she'd taken to the psychiatric intervention we tried. I don't know now if she'll stay in juvenile detention or will go to another psychiatric placement, or maybe to a children's home of some kind. I don't know. I really really really really hope they don't try to send her back home. I told the arresting officers, the police captain, and the woman from DJJ that I fear for my safety and the safety of the rest of the family with her in the house. You know, she threatened to kill us about 1.5 years ago. I won't forget that. She was wild crazy mad tonight. When Superman was in her face with his fist cocked she showed absolutely no fear, no sense of hesitation at all. She'd have tried to knock his block off if he'd stayed that close for long. She ain't right.
*Technically today, but since I haven't been to bed yet, my brain still thinks it's Wednesday.
