“Pack of Animals”……..But who’s “The leader of the pack?

The FILTHY RAG has once more done what it does best. It has sold its “news”paper on sensationalism and whipped its reader into a frenzy about undisciplined, out of control children who deserve to be named and shamed, locked up, put in stocks, birched and a whole host of other barbaric medieval thuggery. The same barbaric thuggery as committed by these so-called “pack of animals” in the first place. And all the “Journalistic research” done could have probably been with a 10 min phone-call


I am talking of the disgraceful, cowardly and in-humane behavior of the youths throwing a bottle of urine at an apparent innocent victim and setting about beating him up by kicking and stamping on him while on the ground. There is no question this sort of behavior is totally unacceptable and should have no place in today’s society, but the fact is, it does have a place, and in my opinion it is rife over here.


The FILTHY RAG appears quick to label these children, and its reader is quick to condemn them and indeed suggest inflicting serious physical and emotional harm to them. Because what they did to their victim was wrong, but it’s right if it is done to them!!?? That’s the level of mentality our children have to try and come to grips with from the good old “Jersey way” It’s wrong for you to do it but OK for “us” to do it.


Instead of blaming, naming and shaming, or inflicting abuse on these children it is my belief energies would be better spent looking into what (or who) causes children to act like this in the first place? I left a comment on the Filthy Rag’s “Have Your Say” basically suggesting a torch should be shined into the Education Department which one of the commenter’s managed to interpret into I blame the teachers for children’s behavior.


I do not blame the teachers for children’s behavior or lack of it, I do however suggest they should be shouldering some of the blame, or at least the Education Department should. They are very quick to take all the glory when students get good grades, but they are not so quick to appear in our local press claiming any responsibility when the children, who have spent the vast majority of their childhood in the Education system, turn out to be alcoholics, drug addicts, anti social thugs, wife beaters and in extreme cases murderers.


Regular readers/viewers of VFC will be all too aware of the ongoing battle I have with our Education Minister and department just to find out if a senior Civil Servant is a child abuse suspect who is still in post. I believe the said Civil Servant is a child abuse suspect, although I have no proof of this, and no-one will either confirm or deny this is the case. On top of this we now have a teacher who has been questioned by the Police about assaulting children, not charged but reported to the very same person who could be a child abuse suspect! Supposing all these allegations are true, then we have teachers and Civil Servants, who beat children up, do not face any prosecution, and expect these children to go out into the big wide world well rounded and respectable members of society.


There is no doubt “bad parenting” plays a part when children go off the rails, but by the same token so does bad schooling. The Education Department are legal guardians of our children while they are at school; this includes disciplining our children and teaching them right from wrong as well as educating them, “caring” for them, and so, molding them into responsible young adults.


“Journalists” over here would do better trying to find out where our children are learning all this despicable behavior instead of labeling them “a pack of animals”. If Senior Civil Servants and teachers have been, or are beating up on our children then get them rooted out of the system just for a start. Have a look at the anti bullying policies in place at our schools and are they being implemented? Why is it when a child gets kicked around a games field like a football by five attackers that the punishment is a couple of days off school, who invented that policy?! Why is it when a child gets slashed across the throat with a pen leaving an injury that is visible for days that a teacher tells the parent it was “just a bit of fun” when the victim says it was only fun for the attacker and there are no consequences for the attacker, who invented that policy?


Nobody in our government appears willing to “shine a torch” into the Education Department and our local media are more than happy to dismiss children as a pack of animals. Is this because it doesn’t involve any kind of “real journalism” or is it that they don’t want to “rock the boat” and upset the powers that be?


There is a real problem over here with unruly children/teenagers and young adults that will not get any better unless the correct questions are asked, or more importantly, answered! This issue needs addressing, correct policies put in place and like I have said, “a bright light shone into our Education system”.
I would like to make it clear; I do not condone the barbaric behavior of the children that set about this man in town. Neither do I condone headlines like “pack of animals”. Headlines like “children failed by system”? Or “let’s, as a community find out what’s going wrong and where? Be a part of the solution and not the problem.
If our local media want to play the blame game, do some real research, explain to the public that parents have no right to know if their children are under the “care” of alleged child abuse suspects. Start reporting what is going on in our schools in an open and honest manner. Perhaps then we might start getting a little closer to “the solution” because as far as I can see they (the, local media) are part of the problem.


These children might well be described as a pack of animals, that being the case every pack animal has a leader, let’s find out, openly and honestly, who or what that leader is. Then, and only then can we eradicate the problem. Something tells me putting them in stocks or birching them will not work. It’s kind of like locking up the drug addict and leaving the dealer to carry on plying his trade.