My ex left left my 12 year old locked out of the house alone and went on to work fortunately my 12 year old has a phone and called me and I took her on to school.
I am absouloutely furious about what happened but in the end did she break any law by doing this?
And also in the mean time between now and when I file for emergency custody would getting DSS involved be a good idea and what is your experience dealing with DSS?
You should get DSS involved if you feel that a child is being abused, endangered or neglected. While it certainly seems neglectful on its face, I cannot say if this one act will rise to the level of obtaining emergency custody or not without doing a case review of the full facts.
The question still remains was a law broken by leaving a 12 year old alone to fend for herself, this was not some arranged thing where she was having someone come and get her she simply got angry and left.
Again, my recommendation would be that you should contact DSS to ask them about this issue. You can file for emergency custody as well if you feel that the child is not safe in your ex’s care, and can refuse to allow the ex to exercise visitation based on his recent actions if you feel the child is unsafe with him. If you have a custody order or agreement in place and you refuse to allow him visitation as outlined in the agreement, then you would technically be in breach/contempt by not allowing him his time. If he files for breach/contempt against you however, you could use his recent acts to explain to the court why you felt it necessary to keep the child. I suggest you meet with an attorney to create a plan of action.