A Dangerous Son Page #4

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it was a soda.

And...

He does have a lot

of strikes against him,

so there's

no doubt about that.

But the question becomes,

what can we wrap around him,

so that he can have

the right kind of guidance

as things get

a little more complicated?

Well, he has

the predisposition

of substance abuse as well.

Tony:
Yeah, the whole thing.

He's got everything.

So, he's got the dad's death

in his head

and the ultimate solution--

suicide by cop. Right?

Mm-hmm.

You know, one of the things

that we are going to push

is for-- in September,

for a more...

I would say, comprehensive

assessment of Vontae.

I don't know

if there's some kind

of psychosis or not.

Right now, he's got

the diagnosis of bipolar,

but, you know,

it's still something that

they really need

to tease out.

Edie:
Hey, William.

William:
What?

What? I've been

doing so good at home!

You're being unreasonable!

Bill:
William.

Hey. It's only--

Edie:
Okay.

Why do you want me

to go so bad?

Be re-- be--

Negotiate!

I've been doing

so good at home!

(Bill speaks indistinctly)

William:

Yes. Yes.

I'm not going.

No, you're--

(spits)

No.

(sighs)

We know this, that illnesses

that involve psychosis,

where people become irrational,

they may become frightened,

they may become highly,

highly paranoid--

they can be dangerous.

That's part

of the disorder.

We understand that.

That's why it's so important

that they be treated,

because when

they are treated,

there is a profound

reduction in risk.

And in fact, at that point,

it's much more likely,

they're going to be hurt

by somebody else

rather than them

hurting somebody else.

(William screaming)

I thought I was

staying home!

William.

(screaming)

Call the cops, have them

come over and take me.

Okay, you don't have

to do that.

Aah! I thought

I was staying home!

William.

I thought I was

staying home!

Let me stay home

or I'll start threatening

to hurt myself!

(screaming)

Don't take me.

Edie:
I can't drive

with you like that.

(William crying)

Edie:

The police are here.

(siren wailing)

(crying continues)

I wanna live at home!

I wanna be at home!

Edie:
Help!

I wanna be

at home!

I miss home!

I wanna be at home!

I wanna be at home!

I wanna be at home!

I wanna live at home!

Officer:

Come here, buddy.

(William crying)

Liza:

I can tell you

there's nothing harder

than watching

your 11-year-old child

be handcuffed and pushed

into the back of a police car...

because of what you know...

is just a behavioral symptom.

I can't tell you

how many parents

have described to me

having to call the police

on their kids

and have said to me,

"It was the hardest,

saddest thing

"that I ever had

to do in my life.

"To call the police to come in

to discipline my own child,

whom I couldn't control

felt to me like the biggest

failure I had ever known."

(William crying)

(crying)

I mean, this has been

just about every month for--

I don't know--

almost a year now.

And Bill's going there,

and then I'm gonna...

take over for Bill.

We do shifts, so...

he'll stay

with him in ER,

until I get there,

and then I'll relieve him

for a few hours,

so that he can get

a little bit of work done.

When puberty hit, he just

went into mental illness.

It was more a mix

between autism...

and anxiety disorders

and things like that,

and then

somewhere around puberty,

he started hearing voices.

And, um, pretty scary voices,

actually,

like telling him...

"I want you to do

what James Holmes did."

William is fascinated

with James Holmes.

He's fascinated

with the story.

I think it scares him,

because he stayed at

Children's Hospital,

and he knew that

James Holmes lived nearby.

And, um...

and I think in a way,

he's kind of testing

to see-- is he as bad

as James Holmes?

'Cause he's asked

that a few times.

"Am I as bad as him?

Am I gonna end up like him?"

Newsman:
His hair

still bright orange,

James Holmes stared blankly

and yawned in court today

where, for the first time,

his lawyers claimed

he is mentally ill.

The past

several weeks

have seen

another deadly outbreak

of mass shootings,

part of an epidemic

of senseless violence

that's now occurring

on a regular basis.

It's become harder and harder

to ignore the fact

that the majority

of the people pulling

the triggers

have turned out to be

severely mentally ill.

There's every reason to think

that there's something

about the way

the brain's functioning

that leads

to the symptoms

that you see.

That's important to us,

because what we've learned

in the case

of heart disease is

that you have to get

past the symptoms

You have to begin

to look at the mechanisms

of disease.

It's like giving

painkillers to someone

who's got chest pain.

You can give them a way

to relieve the short-term pain,

but what you really

wanna do is figure out

what's wrong with their heart

and figure out

how to make sure

that they're getting the best

heart function possible.

The same can be said

for mental illness.

(rock music plays

on computer)

(gunfire, explosions)

(TV playing indistinctly)

I'm going to be meeting

with the case manager

and the two people

from the program.

Just-- it's a meet-and-greet

pretty much.

They're gonna come over,

tell me about the program,

what to expect,

what's gonna be going on.

I mean, I would like

if you guys would look

at his medicines,

and if you felt

like you might want

to try something else,

whether it'd even be

with the ADHD--

'cause it's like, I--

For a long time,

I guess I was hoping

there'd be a medicine

that would fix it.

When people are like,

"Abilify has this calming

nature and da-da-da."

When I don't see that,

I'm like, "How do I know

if it's working?

"I don't know.

Is he supposed to be

breaking his doors

and having

these meltdowns?"

Right.

I-- I don't know.

Ethan has attention

deficit disorder,

hyperactive attention

deficit disorder, ADHD,

and oppositional

defiance disorder,

known as ODD,

and with the underlying

diagnosis of autism--

so he's on the spectrum.

He's high-functioning

but just on the spectrum.

It's almost like

I kind of feel like at times,

I forced the other symptoms

into play with the doctor,

saying, "Look, obviously,

there's something else

going on."

Like right now, they say

they won't diagnose him

with bipolar, he's too young,

but even if,

he's on meds that are--

that people

with bipolar would take.

It's almost

like a Ouija board

experience, right?

Where you take your child

into the specialist,

it's like, "Ooh!"

They interview him

for a while, they give him

a bunch of little tests,

and then I don't know,

they're like, "Ooh!

Oppositional defiance disorder!

That's what it is today."

You're like, "Okay,

what do we do for that?"

"Well, we're gonna take

this drug and this drug

and this drug,"

And my child--

I think he'd been on 12

or 13 different drugs,

again, by the time

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