A generation running out of control

WHY do a small number of our youngsters have such a propensity for violence or law breaking?

Where has our education system gone wrong, and why are some parents failing so badly?

I ask these questions in response to the murder of 19year-old Laa Chol who was allegedly stabbed by a 17-yearold male on Saturday night in Melbourne.

Her life was cut short when a gang of teens gatecrashed a birthday party she was at and the 17-year-old allegedly stabbed her using a pocket knife.

Why is a boy that age even carrying a knife?

When I was that age I couldn’t get out of the kitchen with a butter knife let alone take a real one out of the house.

I remember having a trolley pole under my bed for years, which I’d personally broken off a trolley, but if push ever came to shove, there’s no way I would have used it on anyone.

The worst act of violence I unleashed with it was whacking the bark off a tree. My best mate did get expelled from the high school we attended for having a pole in his school bag. But truth be told I know he wouldn’t have used it either. Having it was more youthful bravado than anything else. But back to teens of 2018. I guess some will say it’s a mean world and view me as naive. In some ways I’m desensitised to violence due to the fact we report on it almost daily in this profession. But in another I’m amazed that people so young are capable of these acts. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t as in tune to the news cycle as I am now, but I’m sure not as many of these violent acts, such as home invasions and bashings at the hands of teens, played out when I was a teen.

Writing this column has made me feel a bit like my dad, who constantly bemoans “this generation”.

But stories like Laa Chol’s murder involving significant acts of violence by teens seem to rear their head constantly.

Last year teens in a stolen car drove it at a police officer as they were about to be arrested, and just yesterday young men, some who may well be teens, smashed their way into the APCO petrol station at Lara.

I’m keen to hear other people’s thoughts on teens of today.