My 18yo son wants to drop out of high school and get his GED.

I understand why he wants to drop out.  He and his girlfriend of nearly three years broke over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  Basically, he found out that she had slept with two of his supposed good friends and also tried to get with a third.  I'm not sure why she did this as my son treated her like gold.  He followed her around like a little puppy.  Did everything she told him to do.  He all but stopped attending family functions because she wanted him to attend her family functions and vacations, etc.  Over Christmas break, she and he were kind of trying to get back together, but then he found out she had slept with one of his best friends (a guy he had known since grade school) and they had slept together in my house on my son's bed!  My nephew was at my house while my son and I were running errands.  He let them in to "wait" for my son to get home and my nephew left to go to work.  And they slept together in my son's bed.

Well, my son was devastated and decided he was done.  He started dating another girl, something he had never done to that point because he had hoped him and his ex could work things out.  This girl he started dating was a far cry from the ex.  A nice girl, active in school activities and active in church.  Very, very sweet.  The ex decided she wanted him back and kept coming by the house to see my son.  I, of course, am usually barricaded in my home office working or I would have turned her sorry behind away at the door.  One evening she let herself into the house and found my son in the family room watching a movie and cuddling with the new girl.  The ex lost her mind, attacked my son, punched in the face with a little cigarette in her hand and burned him.  When she went out to get in her car and leave, my friend had pulled in the driveway behind her and trapped her in.  I went out to see what all the ruckus was and found that the ex had gone crazy and I also smelled that she had been drinking.  I refused to have my friend move her car or let her drive.  I told her she needed to call someone or I would call her grandparents (whom she lives with).  She got in her car and tried to drive through my front yard.  Finally her aunt showed up and drove her.  I told her not to come back.

When school was back in session in January, the ex had started dating someone.  She put this boy up to sending taunting text messages to my son's phone.  Calling my son's name and telling my son how his ex girlfriend was more "satisfied" now that she was with him.  Plus my son has a class with the ex and he has to put up with her in that class talking about him and giggling with her friends.  You all know how teenage girls can be.  My tried to ignore all of this, but it was very hard for him because his hurt goes way deep.  He still cared about her and he couldn't understand how she could have turned on him like she did.  So one day after several texts from this guy, my son left the house to have it out with him.  He and this guy had the fight that had been building up and provoked by the ex-girlfriend.  During the fight, the girl decides to jump in and save her boyfriend because he wasn't faring well in the fight.  At which time, the girl took a punch to the face.  She claims my son hit her, but my son says he's not sure if it was him or the other guy.  Regardless who hit her, it was an accident and my son he was sorry and that she shouldn't have jumped into the fight.  The girl, always eager to stir up trouble, immediately called her father and her two cousins, all of whom have criminal records for various drug and assault chargers, and told them that my son had hit her in fact, making it sound deliberate.

Later that same day, I'm at home working in my office.  My son is in his room listening to his stereo and playing video games.  All of sudden I hear my front door slam open and what sounded like a hundred people come running through my house.  I take off my headphones to hear what's going on because sometimes my son and his friends wrestle around and act silly and I thought maybe they were just being stupid guys again.  Then I heard screaming and I ran out of my room.  There are about four people standing my hallway and in my son's bedroom there are the two cousins and the dad (a 40yo man!) standing over my son who is in the floor with his eye already swelling!  I started screaming bloody murder for everyone to get the !#@!#@$@ out of my house and kids scattered.  But the dad was still standing over my son yelling.  I shoved him hard and then got in my face and I mean his nose was literally a half an inch away from nose and he started screaming the F-word in my face and telling me my son hit his daughter, etc.  I know I should have scared, but my blood was way up seeing my son like that and I started cussing back at him and telling him I didn't give a crap what had happened to his $@#@ daughter and he better get out of my house.  And he left.

Long story short (yeah right, sorry!) my son had an orbital fracture.  His eye completely swelled shut, he had bruises on his neck.  My son refused to go to the police, but I threw his behind in the car and forced him to go.  We filed complaints, took pictures of my son's injuries, and submitted medical records.

Well this week the prosecuting attorney finally decided who to charge with what and the two cousins and the father have been served with felony warrants for burglary and assault and battery.  Today at school the ex-girlfriend started mouthing my son and calling him a snitch, etc.  And my son has come home and said he's done with school.  He just wants to get his GED, get a job, and go to a trade school or junior college next fall.  I don't want him to drop out, but I understand why he wants to and I'm tempted to tell him that I will support him whatever his decision.  He has suffered so much at the hands of this girl and I can understand him not wanting to even set eyes on her again.

So I want to ask other mothers out there what would you do in my situation?  What would you advise your child to do?  I have done nothing but worry and pray for the last six months for him over his heartbreak over this girl and all the trouble she has caused.  I don't blame him for just wanting to walk away from it all and sort of get a fresh start.

Thanks for listening!