Teen-rage London

Heard through the grape wine.

A bloke of 14 decides that his knee should have close contact with his mate's head in the bus on the way to school. The reason: the bloke had made a girl his junior pregnant and this mate was not known for his ability to keep secrets. Hence an attempt to "persuade" him.

Also in the picture. The aunt of the girl, 12, took her to an abortion. Her mother did not know
anything of the whole, well, affair.

In London teachers face hard life, especially in special schools where they have real life "unteachables" without any reassuring TV cameras. Every working day.

Later in the day, the bloke who got beat in the bus decided to attack another bloke in the class. Follows his expulsion from the school.

What were those vicious self-perpetuating circles again?

This is a true story.

As are pupils wearing electronic tags as they are on Asbos or casual threats to "take care of" teachers.

The new laws allowing teachers to physically maintain control in class rooms can sound being properly "tough on yobs" and thus sensible solution. But many teachers are not equipped with the physique of action-film style security guards and "kids" burly youths. There is not always a male tacher in shining armour riding to their rescue from the neighbouring class room.

And the phenomenon of so called happy-slapping where usually physical abuse of someone is filmed with a mobile phoe? My source told me about that months before the issue was written about in the national press.

It is good to keep things in perspective though, I think. Happy-slapping is a particularly obnoxious type of behaviour but people have beaten each other long before mobile phones with videoing capability. It's a fad that will come and go. And some boasted about what they have done. Now there is just a medium for them to enhance their image of "toughness" in the eyes of others - especially if the others obligingly ogle the sufferings of victims' on their mobiles.

Obivously happy slapping and any other kind of activity which involves beating innocent people should not be allowed. But it is a totally different thing to claim that mobile phones with videoing capability would accullyinstigate violence themselves.

Already when I was at school in Finland ages ago (read about 15 years) , there were apparently videos available where real people were tortured and killed, before extreme terrorists or so. I did never want to see any so I am not absolutely sure if it was true. But video cassettes were changing hands.

One of the guys talking about these is now a policeman.

Draw your own conclusions.