Hi there again
Jenn and Abz - Ah.... what an immotive subject
I have to admit that I am not wholly on either side of the fence but directly in the middle. Having worked with damaged kids I know that sometimes they are SO damaged that their problems are never resolved, where for some rehabilitation is an COMPLETE turnaround. It must be SO hard to decide which is which. I only know that with some of the kids I have worked with it is just a look that makes me take a step back and take care because I feel there is something fundamentally wrong and there is danger.
I think perhaps when something as dreadful as that case happens, the children that committed the crime, now grown up MUST demonstrate WITHOUT A DOUBT that their whole thinking has changed and there is no deep seated desire to harm before even thinking of allowing them freedom. Even then I feel their lives should be monitored.
Many children are badly damaged by their life experiences and have fallen foul of the law for numerous minor offences, including violence not that I think violence is minor). They are still in society and some of them are walking time bombs - just waiting for someone to light the blue touch paper
I do understand what you mean Jenn. As a mother of a young child you will always think, "This could be my child". One thing I will say is to get it into perspective.
Jenn, if you put all the focus on these two perpetrators, you are in danger of ignoring the fact that this is only a small part of the problem. You are worried, quite rightly and understandably about your child. I was too and told my children about stranger danger and also told them that strangers were people who mummy had never asked to look after them - so if they'd never looked after them (even if they were friends) they were strangers. I didn't leave my kids a lot but when I did, it was with people I trusted completely. That way I didn't have to tell them I didn't completely trust the next door neighbour, he was just another stranger to be treated with caution.
Girls, I do not altogether sit well with a life for a life but cannot say that anyone is right or wrong. I believe life is precious and NO-ONE has the right to take another life but the ultimate solution surely comes before all of this.
This is probably the second disaffected generation of young people our society has failed. The education system in general is in melt-down and drowning in it's own paperwork and many school succeed on paper only. The kids often have a very different experience.
The system for the more difficult disaffected students has gone through transition after transition and is still not meeting the needs of these very complex individuals. Once this is addressed in real terms, with true face-to-face work to meet the emotional needs and break down the barriers, then society may have a chance to solve the disaffected yob culture.
Mistakingly all initiatives, money led of course, are short term solutions to long term problems. Unfortunately for the most part, those short term solutions do not ultimately work. There has to be changes that will follow through and really change lives and the stability of knowing that support systems are going to remain in place and the rug not pulled from under their feet.
It's a bit like losing a lot of weight really. People fail for those very same reasons. You need to be in it for the long game and put the support systems in to make it happen. At the end of the road is a lifestyle change.
Jenn, you think you wrote a sermon but I think mine was almost a thesis
Sorry
x
