Dealing With My 16-year-old Son For Real

Hey folks!

So, this is gonna be a bit of a rollercoaster, brace yourselves. My son was born back in 2009 when I was still in college, sophomore year. His mom and I didn't exactly get alonng, to say the least, and things got real rough by 2014.We split up then, and evne though we tried exchanging him every other weekend as court ordered, it wasn't smooth sailing. She would block me from seeing him on weekends by claiming he was sick or that she needed timme with him before I could visit.

By the time we went bakc to court in 2015 for our divorce, I hoped to get primary custody but ended up losing out big-time since the judge saw a desperate woman running away from an angry man. They ruled against me and I had no choice but to follow through with paying nearly $500 a month in child support while never seeing my kid. The kicker was that she blocked all communication, saying I was abusive, which wasn't great for anyone involved.

Fast forward a few years later-2021-and I'd remarried and was trying to start another family when I reached out to his mom again to try to figure things out for our son. He had really fallen behind at school by then since she was busy making more kids with different guys instead of focusing on him. So, we started working on getting his life back on track.

But then bam! She decided to take him out of school and homeschool him. Outta nowhere, they announced plans to move across the country for a fresh start. We had no choice but to sue again to get my son back, which took over a year. In all that time, she packed up and moved anyway. A few months later, her babysitter left our then 12-year-old kid unsupervised with an 8-year-old girl-talk about trouble brewing.

During the investigation, it came out that he might have done something to his half-sister (her second child), though it wasn't proven. Meanwhile, I found out that the dad of her second kid had skipped paying child support, and she also let another man who potentially did something bad around 2015-2016 off the hook too. When we finally got to trial, everything turned in my favor. We won primary custody, final decision-making power, and I even got some of her missed child support payments.

Before he officially moved in with us, he had a run-in with the law and was sentenced to three years of probation, which included good grades and seeing a therapist. Well, lt's just say it didn't go well at first... After seven months of struggling, they sent him off to Utah for boys who have similar issues. Surprisingly, he turned things around there, opened up about his crime, and came back earlier than expected.

When school resumed as a freshman, he actually did okay-balancing sports and grades pretty well. Therapy kinda hit a snag again but overall, probation closed his case.

Then summer 2025 hits and it all went to hell. He ditched classes left and right, got caught vaping, skipped out on homework, ran away from school security... you name it. Attendance was terrible, no sports for him. It culminated in a cuple of months ago when he refused to fly home after spring break because his mom sided with him against us. Now she's using this as evidence that I'm the problem.

So my wife and I are stuck here-our court order doesn't work across state lines, so we'd have to file an emergency case in her state just to get a temporary order. Even then, it wouldn't force him onto a plane. In the meantime, his school dropped him for not returning frmo break, lost all his credits, and they're suggesting he go to some alternative high school.

And don't even get me started on how she owes me over $10k in child support that she's still refusing to pay. Plus, therapy is a big issue since she hasn't helped with getting him the help he needs after everything bad she let happen to him, including potentially getting molested due to lack of supervision/p