should I tell the school, police or both (hard drugs)

[DieselSpillages]

Ds 17 is is suffering from depression. He has only a couple of friends at his school. He has confided in me that he and his friends have started hanging out at breaks in another friends car . This guy who is over 18 is due to leave his present school and change to Ds' school and is smoking heroin in front of them. He also sells cocaine which he apparently keeps in his car.

Ds is very open with me and has confided how disturbed he is because his friends have now all tried smoking heroin. DS assues me that he has not which I hope is true. Because of his current depression this is exceedingly worrying. I know the fact he told me is in itself a cry for help.

I need to protect Ds and his friends from this situation. I know I have to report this guy (who's 18) but how to do so without it getting back to DS. I know the guys name and the description of his car . I have told DS I don't want him to go in this guy's car , but his only friends are hanging out with him and the alternative is he spends breaks alone and he already feels very isolated.

Ds is already having a hard time missing school with depression and I don't want the school to think he is into drugs too. I have told Ds that for the time being I am going to meet him at lunchtimes in order to give him an alternative to spending time with these people but I clearly need to act.

I can advise Ds but I can't police him all the time he is at school. I can't tell him I am going to report this kid as I don't want DS to feel responsible if the kid gets busted. What if I report the guy and DS is in his car when he gets busted ? He's already in a very vulnerable state and he just doesn't need the extra grief.

I need advice how do people think I should handle this situation. Do I tell the police or the school ? Can I do this anonymously to protect my DS ?

Okay, well you know you need to act. I would start with the school. Tell your son you're going to do something about it and on no account should he get in the car again. I appreciate he doesn't want to be on his own at lunch time - can he go to the library and say he needs to catch up on his work?

If that boy is over 18, he won't be transferring to your son's school. It just wouldn't happen. If he had to resit A levels or whatever, then he'd do that in a college; a school wouldn't want to accept an adult onto a course where everyone else is a child.

Thanks for the response Imperial. I am not in the uk and rules about ages are a bit different. I called it a school but really it's like a sixth form college. People can keep retrying here until they are quite old. I did tell DS I felt duty bound to tell but I worry that if he knows I've reported it he wont ever confide in me again.

The thing is that he wants the situation resolved, too. He wants his friends back again and he wants that young man with the car to go away. That's not going to happen unless someone takes action.

Tell him you will be taking action and that if he goes in the car again he risks being there when the police arrive.

The school will act pretty quickly once they're told. I would phone them now, personally.

AFAIK if you anonymously tell the police that the person driving said car tried to sell you drugs then they put a marker on their car and pull them over to search them. Might be worth a try. Hard drugs would get him in a lot of trouble.

I agree. Tell your son he needs to keep right away from the car and the dealer and report it to the school. Be absolutely straight with your son, he has been honest with you and you need to help him get out of this situation.
School should deal with it pretty swiftly.

Anyone could have seen the guys in the car hanging round the school at lunchtime and reported it. But you need to make sure your son gets out of that peer group. He will make new friends eventually.

Really nice if he is willing to meet you at lunchtimes......