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[Serious] My high schooler worked at a fast food joint. Recently he encountered one of his underage coworkers under the influence of meth, which she said was given by management. What to do? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by 2piradians@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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My son is afraid of reporting this to police because many of his friends work there, and he's afraid of retaliation at school for being a "snitch". This is not the first time he's witnessed something very wrong and had to report it, that time to police, and he was targeted at school both physically and just with asshole kids treating him the way they do (while also influencing others).

Management made up an excuse and fired my son after it became apparent that he knew about the meth situation and was not ok with it.

He does want corporate to know all of this and take action, so we plan to report it to them.

Part of the trouble is this: My SO's daughter had a similar situation at another fast food joint, it was reported to corporate, and the response was basically "we can't do anything because that location is a franchise". The problem manager in that instance was promoted soon afterward.

I'm not sure if my son's restaurant is corporate owned or franchise. If it's a franchise as I fear, and corporate will take no action, what recourse can we take without police?

I'm super pissed my son was exposed to this and I'm concerned for the girl that informed him, not to mention the other employees. This obviously cannot stand, but I also don't want to ruin my son's social life over it. I remember being a high schooler, it's hard enough without being targeted by jerks.

EDIT: Thank you for all the replies. I plan to wait awhile to give my son some distance, then contact police. To all who said we live in a broken place, you're right, and if we could move immediately we would. It helps to get outside perspectives on stuff like this, and I appreciate all your replies.

Also fuck Spez!

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[-] kava@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

You should teach your son to mind his own business - his life will be easier going forward because of it.

Virtually all restaurants have drug users. You're not going to stop a systemic problem by trying to narc to the police or corporate. The owners of the restaurant, the people who actually have hiring abilities, desperately need warm bodies and they'll more or less take anyone. I would never let a child of mine work at a restaurant. Have them volunteer at an animal shelter or something.

Assuming the police do anything at all, you're looking at criminal charges for someone who will likely be replaced by someone else willing to do the same thing. Potentially even the young teen might get charges out of it.

Is that really helping anyone? If the teen is willing to take meth in the first place, that's the real issue that needs to be addressed. She will just find someone else to get it from- that shit is rampant. I understand that meth is a terrible thing (I've been through heroin addiction myself, been clean 6+ years by now). But sometimes we just have to accept we can't regulate everyone's life without risking potentially worse consequences by doing so.

If you really want to help then you, the adult, should talk to this young girl who is using meth. Either talk to her or talk to her parents. Tell her what she's doing is dangerous and she should get help.

Beyond that, what else can you do?

[-] Alto@kbin.social 14 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Yknow, I would almost agree with you if adults weren't giving children fucking meth

[-] fidodo@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago

Also, think about why an adult is giving a child girl meth. It's not fucking good.

Maybe I should work spell it out for the thread OP since he seems like an idiot. Rape at a minimum, and very possible human trafficking.

[-] Vaggumon@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Yeah far better to let some girl OD or get raped by the guy giving her the drugs then to do the right thing.

[-] vd1n@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023

236 points (100.0% liked)

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