To think this 15 year old should be seriously punished?

[user1480355677]

15 year old had argument with his mum and then left the house yelling "I'm going to kill myself". He was only missing an hour when police helicopter was scrambled and half of the town were out looking for him (it was 5pm so very dark and cold). Just as a boat was launched to check the river, the boy was found... in his mates house playing on an xbox apparently oblivious to the chaos he had caused.

AIBU to think he should be punished for causing this chaos, wasting police and public time, all that money wasted.

People are assuming that mum knew where his mates house was , or that the mate existed at all . In the vast majority of teenage mispers , that's not actually the case . So police might not be able to go round checking the mates house . Or it might be one of a simultaneous number of enquiries going on at once .

Think about it from another angle . Distressed 15 year old leaves home , yelling that he's going to kill himself . Police attend , take a report , check the friend's houses that they know about . Nothing . So they give him a chance to calm down and come home for a few hours , whilst doing the usual hospital checks , custody checks , call ons to the friends and associates that intel throws up .

Two hours later a member of the public find him swinging in woodland .

People would be up in arms , wanting to know why police hadn't treated it seriously . Wanting to know why they hadn't deployed the helicopter when it had got dark , wanting to know where the search dogs or teams had been . These days , mispers with that level of risk attached get treated seriously from the word go , certainly where I work , because in some situations , time is of the essence . Damned if you do, damned if you don't . Heavy handed if you do , negligent if you don't . No pleasing people really .

He said something stupid in the heat of an argument and slammed out of the house. Presumably his parent would know he was either being over dramatic, and to call police was a major over reaction. Or, that he has genuine mental health problems, and the threat was potentially a very real one. I'm surprised the police responded with such heavy measures, the parent would have to have insisted it was a deadly serious threat. Either he has genuine problems and he's now likely to get the help he needs, or he's only half to "blame" for "wasting" police time and resources, and will be incredibly embarrassed and ashamed as everyone will be talking about him. The teasing he's likely to get at school alone is punishment enough, and i don't think he deserves punishing at all anyway. He said something dumb, and inconsiderate, and caused his parents some worry, but he never intended for police search teams and helicopters to be out looking for him. His parent/s and police are probably just glad it was a false alarm and he's safe and well.

Why did the parents not check at the friends house before calling emergency services?

What punishment would you suggest, OP?

I'd say that a unanimous YABU! A very rare sight. I'd say the boy needs support and education, not punishment.

Not his fault all those resources were called unnecessarily. I'd be more concerned with giving the mother a good talking to, she is responsible for the situation given that the boy is still technically a child.

Why did she allow it to escalate in this way? Why didn't she control the situation better? And for fuck's sake, why didn't she call round his mate's houses before phoning the police!

Typical modern parenting (yes I'm generalising in a grossly unfair manner). Parent lets a bad situation develop and then expects someone else to clear everything up.

So the police put out helicopters when someone threatens suicide?
Seriously there must be a lot of helicopters flying around then.

YABU.

The child said something stupid, I think we've all don't that, unless you're perfect.

reported (yawn)

Amanda- where they're available yes. Countless man hours are wasted chasing around after people who say they're going to kill themselves. Even ones where it's clear they've no intention of doing it eg most of the under class when a decision with officialdom doesn't go their way.

Senior officers are terrified of criticism being levelled even if that original action was through no fault of the police. The example given by Polomino being spot on. Really can't win

And if the person reporting had informed the police he'd never done anything like that before then yes, helicopters, lowland search and rescue, boats etc. Time would be critical

Bless him. I hope he's ok.

I'd assume there was more too it for the police to have reacted in the way they did.

If he had phoned the police threatening to kill himself, then there should have been a punishment.

But he didn't, and I think sanctioning every child that makes a belligerent threat to kill themselves would be a waste of resources.

I'm not sure I believe a police helicopter went up within an hour for a stroppy teen

Sorry. Not buying it.

No, he shouldn't be punished. If it was a silly melodramatic threat, then calling the police was an extreme over-reaction, and not his fault. If there's more to the story, and reason to believe he's actually suicidal, he needs support, not punishment.

What FairyF said.

What Fairy and Cancelly said.

What's the backstory then?