How to approach...*si*

Hi-
I just got home from my 2nd day at school, and, well, here's the deal-

****SA TRIGS*****

My best friend has been dating this guy on and off (twice) since last year, and the 2 times he broke up with her, the exact reason why was kind of unclear. The guy, we can call him John Doe, (and my friend Jane Doe) has a really over protective, over involved father, he is 17, a senior this year, and his father is involved in every aspect of his life. All three of us belong to this student organization, and at every single meeting (whether or not it was meant for parents) his dad would show up, and his dad is a very CREEPY man, he harasses one girl in particular, and last year she reported him to the main office after she broke down into tears because he kept trying to touch her, and pull her skirt up as he "brushed" by. I don't know what ended up happening with that. So, this kid is semi- special ed. John has an aid that goes with him to classes, but hes one of those kids that can lead a perfectly normal life, its just that he really weird, in the way he talks and acts, so he have less friends, and John in particular is very abnoxious, so he is pretty much despised amoung the general student body.

Anyway, John grew up with a boy that is on the bus with Jane and I. We can call him bob (haha) Bob doesn't like John either, but John's father knows Bob's father, and in the past if Bob didn't tolerate John who was constantly visiting Bob, and acting very abnoxious as always, John's dad would complain to Bob's dad, and Bob would be int rouble for being "mean" and so Bob pretends to be John's friend because he has no choice. John and Bob went swimming, and Bob found large welt marks across John's back- and John claimed they were from his backpack. Bob told Jane this, because he was worried about John, and Jane told me. no one else knows about it. Jane has been trying to figure out why John broke up with her, and another student said that John's father told her that he hated Jane, and wanted John to break up with her, and right afterwards he did. So, that confirmed my thoughts that John broke up with Jane because of his father, and we started to wonder- how bad is it, to make John nervous when around his father, and to keep Jane and his father apart at all cost. Jane got the feeling that John was protecting her from his dad, and she didn't understand why. I felt like we were both thinking about it, so I was the first to venture out and ask Jane "you don't think...his dad is SAing him, do you?" and at first she acted like it was a crazy idea, and then she admitted she thought the same thing. We talked about it for a bit, and then called over Bob, who admitted he had the same feeling. So, now I am not really personally friends with John, and all 3 of us are very concerened for John, so Bob and Jane were discussing wheather or not they should talk to him about it, and how they would bring up such a thing. Jane began to desperatly fight back tears, saying that she didn't want to believe that such a thing could be happening to someone she cared so much about, but that it was the only logical explination.
So my question is, how do you ask a question like that? How do you approach a 17 year old guy, who always seems very nervous and scared around his overbearing father, if his father SAed him? Would it be better not to ask at all? Jane, Bob, and I are the only ones who know about this. Jane Bob and I whispered to each other periodically throughout the bus ride home as we tried to figure this out, and the girl who was being harrased by John's father was curious, and asked what was goign on when Jane got off the bus. Bob said discreetly that Jane was worried about Johns father because John was acting weird lately, but thats all he said...
so, what do you think?

What you should do is to talk to one of your parents and have the parent call about the big welts on Bob's back. That sounds like signs of child abuse. Your ideas of SA don't seem to have any facts to back them up one way or the other. I'm not saying it's not true. We just don't know. But what IS true is that Bob has big welts on his back. Back packs don't cause welts. Being beaten causes welts. PLEASE either tell a parent to call, or call yourself.

Phone Numbers to Report Child Abuse

Slippers