Mother: My son has to face the consequences

The woman, who turned in her 14-year-old son after seeing him in a viral video burglarizing a Dededo restaurant with his friends, told Kandit it was a difficult decision, but the right one to make. “For him, and you know, for the community, because it’s just right,” the 33-year-old mother of seven said about her decision to tell authorities about her son, and his friends.

“When I saw the video that night, I didn’t know what to do because I’m here in the states,” she told Kandit, explaining she is caring for her 17-year-old son, who has been hospitalized on Guam since February, and needed to go to a California hospital for surgery. She and her eldest son arrived in California just last week.

“I’m going crazy here, I saw a video that involved my son, and I don’t know what to do but to call [the authorities],” she said.  Her husband, the boy’s father, is caring for the boy and his five other siblings while she and their eldest son are in California.

“I told them about the other boys, too,” she said, adding that her son seems to succumb to peer pressure that leads to bad decisions. But she doesn’t make excuses for him, either. “He’s beyond control. He knows what he’s doing is wrong. He’s very smart. My son, he has behavioral issues.”

Last week a video went viral of a gang of males burglarizing Wan Chai Restaurant on April 21.

“An employee of the restaurant discovered the establishment was burglarized upon her arrival to work noting the typhoon shutters pried open, the front door was damaged and interior ransacked with numerous items evidently missing,” a Guam Police Department news release Wednesday stated. “On the same date, security footage of the burglary went viral on social media which led a woman to come forward to police and identified her 15 year old minor son to be one of four males depicted in the video of the burglary.”

The boy actually is 14, the mother corrected. Her report to authorities led to the arrest of her son, another male minor, and 18-year-old Joy Aki. Mr. Aki was arrested on suspicion of burglary, theft of property, conspiracy, and jurisdiction over an adult. The two minors were arrested on suspicion of burglary, theft of property, conspiracy, consumption of alcohol underage, and beyond control.

The two minors were set to the Department of Youth Affairs.

And it’s not the 14-year-old boy’s first time there. It isn’t even the first time she’s reported his misconduct.

The boy was sent to DYA for underage drinking around the same time her eldest son began his hospitalization in February, she said. After he was released, he began to sneak out at night to be with his friends.

“When he violates, like leaves the house when we’re sleeping, I will report it right away,” she said. But it’s not her first recourse. “I’m a parent, so I know it falls on me. So, first I’ll go look for him. But if he leaves and I don’t know where he’s at and I can’t find him, I report him. I have to.”

Asked why she chooses to report him, when so many other mothers struggle with such a decision about their beyond-control children, she said it’s never an easy decision, but “Because that’s my part. I have to report it.”

This most recent decision was most difficult for her, because of severity of the crime is the worst she is aware he’s committed. The previous reports were for underage drinking, beyond control, and violations of his release conditions. “It’s more difficult, because now it involves burglary. So, from there, I don’t know what the judge would say. But he has to face the consequences.”

Before his February incident, he had been treated at Sanctuary for his behavioral issues.

“He completes all the classes and the treatments,” she said. “He’ll even get awards. And then, another case opens because he misbehaves in school. He actually does good while he’s in the programs. And when it’s complete, that’s the unpredictable part.”

“I tell him, ‘boy, you’re smart, but I don’t know what’s going on in your mind,'” she lamented with a sigh. “He has good grades. I believe it is his peers. The peers he hangs out with.” She knows who they are, and she recognized them in that viral video. That’s why she reported their names as well.

When she gets back to the island, she said she’s going to watch her boy like a hawk and try to keep him away from peers who may pressure him into misconduct. “I have to stay by his side. I can’t let him out of my sight.”

“I hope he turns his life around,” she said. “My husband and I have been trying our best. With my oldest son being in the hospital and with everything going on, I’ve had to leave work to be in two places at one time. I hope that he does finally realize that I’ve been doing a lot for him.”

This young mother’s life isn’t easy. She and her husband are raising seven young children, one of whom is beyond control, all while dealing with their eldest son’s medical problems, going to work, and trying to pay the bills.

So, she knows a thing or two about the real struggle of life, and being presented with the dilemma many mothers face, when their kids get into trouble. Asked for advice for other parents faced with the predicament of whether to turn in their own children for committing crimes, she said:

“My advice would be not to be hesitant, because you’re just – it helps to actually report them, so that they can learn from it.”