<p>I would notify the parents. And I sincerely doubt the school notified them - he is an adult, and privacy laws being what they are, I don’t think that they would do that. How easy for him to just tell them that he wants to transfer. They need to know that he confessed. That makes it a bit hard for them to bury their heads in the sand. This kid needs help, and he won’t get it if they don’t know about it. As to your son, he needs your support, but he needs to deal with the betrayal. It’s a life lesson, albeit a hard one. And yes, the school could have known if he had been in trouble before. A friend who works at a small LAC (we were classmates when we attended there many years ago) told me that he can’t believe how reporting to your probation officer has become a badge of honor. Yet, the school cannot reveal that. So many courts want the kids in school and make it a condition of their probation. They have to go somewhere. Not a great situation, but… My friend’s son had a roommate that was mentally unstable, and had been for some time. When his roommate refused to leave him alone and threatened him, friend’s son finally had had enough and he pushed him out the door. The unstable young man filed criminal charges. After many thousands of dollars, he was exonerated, but he left the school after the next semester because the school did everything to protect the unstable young man, and nothing to help son’s friend. The fact that he cut himself, and threatened son’s friend with a knife meant nothing to them. I finally told her to call the Dean, and they were going to move the young man, but would need a couple days to do it, and they told him it was because of friend’s son! That lead to the altercation. They really need to learn how to deal with all this better. These things happen, and the victims usually get victimized even more. Your son learned this the hard way. It’s hard when we can’t just fix it for our children.</p>