Wayward teen turned council candidate extols youth hub benefits

AN election candidate wants council to host safe teen hubs after revealing her escape from family physical violence, wagging school and breaking into properties.

In a Facebook post to residents, Division 11 candidate Chantal Clarke relived her journey of leaving school in Year 10 to completing a Masters in Climate Change at age 41.

“I hated home,” she said. “I was bored **** less, so I broke into properties, snuck out each night, regularly wagged school, ran away from home and partied in pubs to get my thrills.

“I never did drugs, vandalised or stole, but I was naughty as hell.”

Ms Clarke’s message to voters has been “not all teens are bad”. “Teens want to socialise and communicate their stresses, but we have responded to this natural need by treating them all as mini terrorists through profiling, police harassment, removal of places where they can congregate and a barrage of derogatory one-way dialogue.”

Crime was a key topic in this month’s Division 11 debate organised by the Bulletin.

Hermann Vorster said that before his election in 2016, he feared for the economic reputation of the suburb after a bikie assault at Varsity Lakes.

“Before the last election I pledged to blanket cover Varsity Lakes CBD with CCTV and did just that,” he said.

“For the first time the community has eyes in our parks, eyes on our public transport eyes around our lakes. Crime is going up, which is why I keep investing in cameras.”

Ms Clarke believes creating a teen hub next to a Men’s Shed would engage teenagers.