John is a fifteen-year-old boy from the north inner city of Dublin. John lives with his mother and his three siblings in a small local authority flats complex: Human Growth and Development Case Study, OC, Ireland

John is a fifteen-year-old boy from the north inner city of Dublin. John lives with his mother and his three siblings in a small local authority flats complex. John’s Mother is a lone parent, his father lives locally with his partner and children aged six and four.  John has very little contact with his Father. John lives with his Mother Tanya and his two half-sisters Rachael aged nine, Sarah aged six, and half-brother Gavin aged two. Tanya gave birth to John when she was sixteen, John and Tanya lived with Tanya’s grandmother until John was six. John is in their Third Year in a local Secondary School for Boys. While in primary school John’s teachers always told Tanya that he is a bright and able student with a talent for art.

Since John started Secondary school John’s progress has been poor and his teachers report that he is not achieving his ability level.  By the end of his first year in Secondary school, John had developed a pattern of behaviour that had led to him being temporarily excluded from school on two occasions. This pattern continued into the second year and he was called before the school Board of Management on two occasions.  In the third year, John started to miss school on a regular basis, when he does attend he is constantly in trouble for his behaviour, he argues with teachers refusing to do what he is asked to do, he is verbally abusive and aggressive in class. He has been known to verbally and physically threaten other students.  John’s case is once more up before the school Board of Management and this time they are threatening to exclude John from school permanently.

Outside of school, John spends his time with a group of boys some of whom are older than him and most of whom have stopped attending school. John often spends his time drinking in his friends’ houses and then roaming around the streets.  His friends like to ride motorbikes and quads late at night and film themselves carrying out stunts. John also smokes cannabis on a regular basis and has tried taking tablets including benzodiazepines on a couple of occasions.

John’s Mother Tanya has tried to help John, she attended a parenting course in the school and has tried various behaviour plans with him, however, she says she feels she has no control over John’s behaviour at this stage and is concerned about the effect it is having on his siblings. There are many arguments in the house and John often stays in his with his Grandmother.

John has been stopped by the police on a number of occasions – which Tanya believes is harassment, on the last occasion John was found to be carrying a Stanley knife, he became aggressive with the Garda involved which resulted in him receiving a formal caution.  John has been referred to the JLO.

The guidance counsellor in the school has tried to work with John.  John has told him that he finds it difficult to control his anger, he feels like everyone is out to get him, the teachers pick on him and at home, he gets blamed on everything.  He feels he has caused a lot of problems for his family and that no matter how hard he tries things always go wrong for him.  John says that the only people who really understand him are his friends, he finds that drinking and smoking cannabis help him to relax and forget about his troubles, he has a dream of becoming a computer games designer at some stage but plans to leave school after his Junior Cert as he says he can get work through some contacts his friends have.