[ASR Teaser: Indiana High School Basketball]

Great blog, a fellow Hoosier here as well! Class of '99!

[Questions: Dealing With Bullies]

Wow, this is sorta humbling reading this stuff. I had to google your initials there to see what it stood for, guess I'm a bit behind the times. I went to school in the 80's/90's, so didn't have the social networks as well. I hung out with everyone, jocks/"nerds"/band kids etc. I never had to worry about the bullying thing, that may have been in part though, due to the fact that I have 2 older brothers, and we are each spaced 2 yrs from each other, when we were kids, if you fought 1 of us, you fought all 3 of us, lol. I always was the guy who broke up the "bully" fights though. I hated seeing bigger kids trying to act tough by picking on smaller kids. If more of todays kids would stick up for each other, I think this problem wouldn't be so rampid. Don't look to the teachers though. Any of the adults that are on here can tell you that cliques exist in the adult realm just as much as the teenage realm. There are just different requirements such as wages per year, yacht clubs, golf clubs, etc. I guess I got lucky growing up an Army brat, moving around, I never felt the need to conform to any 1 set of social standards, figured I wouldn't be there more than a year or 2 at most anyway, lol.

[Patience, Young Jedi. Patience....]

I'd go with the restraining order route, and child services. I wouldn't use child services to be vindictive however. If he is as bad of an alcoholic as you say, someone needs to step in and make sure his children are being cared for. I'm not sure how restraining orders work in Canada, here, you can file for a temporary restraining order, while you petition for a permament restraining order. Once he is served with the temporary, if good ol' Canada has one, 1 of 2 things may play out. 1. He may wisen up and leave you alone, and calm down. 2. He'll get pissed off and violate it, forcing the police' hand to take action. Be warned though, this in America would be a minor offense, unless he goes nuts. Judging from your description of events, if he was that volatile, it would have happened all ready. So, in saying, he would be back out in a day or 2 max. I hate to tell you to move, but it does not sound like you are happy anyway with your living conditions. You may find a place not too far from your father in law that you might be happier with. I work in law enforcement, and unfortunately, even though some people we'd like to lock away from the public forever, there just isn't enough cause to do so. In cases that we feel there is, prosecutors mess up or don't do enough to help, and they still make it out. I do wish you the best of luck though, it really sounds like a stressful situation.