Thread: Computer games being blamed for school stabbing

Boy stabbed at Brisbane school | St Patrick's College, Shorncliffe

Check out the comments! Particularly one from 'pete':

Very sad and tragic. I think kids just dont seem to understand real life consequences. They watch movies, music clips, video games where they can crash a car or stab someone and they just dust themselves off. That you can punch and kick someone with no real damage. Yet in real life people die when they are punched especially if they hit their head on the ground when they fall, people get aids, STD and pregnant from sex, people die when they crash their cars. And innocent people get hurt when countries are invavded. The US way of solving problems is not the only way. Sadly people will escalate the situation by arming themselves in case it happens to them which is what we see with young men carrying knives in public. This is also partly because our justice system is spineless and puts the perps but on the street for us to fear. Make an example of some of these crims and I can promise people will think twice - not "oh well I just get a 2 year propationary and a fine." Human life is valuable. Time for courts to stop devlauing it.

Bring on the star chamber societies!

It is a very sad news item. The victmis family will suffer and I hope the murderer suffers too in guilt and remorse and in punishment - life is not a computer game - people do not come back.

And I agree with the other comments - the govt. need to give parents and teachers their powers back - not to opress or abuse but to help kids be accountable, learn about consequences and act accordingly in society. Parents should also be held accountable.

People are saying bring back the cane in schools, introduce metal detectors, ban knives everywhere... last time I checked, kids weren't allowed to bring knives to school. I think for the discipline problems that bringing back the cane could solve, there would be different problems surfacing. Psychological problems, for instance. I think the onus should be on parents, not schools, to teach kids that violence is not ok, and to monitor their child if they know they are prone to violence or have any disorders that might cause them to be violent.

I remember a kid pulled a knife when I was in year 8 or 9. I don't think he threatened anyone, just waved it around and stuff. The principle suspended him I think. But I went to primary school with him also, and he was a bit of a weird kid. His mum didn't seem to help. I mean as far as she was concerned, her son was an angel, and whenever any teacher spoke to her about school issues (he got into trouble a bit), she would find excuses for the behaviour and insist they were discriminating against her son.

My boyfriend went to a private school and I was surprised when he said if parents gave permission, the teachers there were allowed to give him the cane whenever they saw fit. And he was ADHD, so he got it a lot. But he insists that it had no psychological effect on him and it was a good way of keeping him in line. He is intelligent and got good grades in high school, and seems pretty sane to me. But who knows. Something could surface later on in life.

Thoughts?

the knife was a fishing knife .. come round my house there is heaps of them .. or better yet, my kid can open the top draw and get a kitchen knife if he wants .. but he doesnt .. WHY?? cause i beat the shit out of him if I even see him with anything sharp .. he learns quick ..

onus on parents is where its at.

corporal punishment ftw - when schools actually had power to discipline kids this sort of shit practically never happened. now what do they do when kids act out in school? - here's an example from my wife's school: they had a kid who routinely beat up other kids, and actually attacked a teacher. did he get the cane? (no because we're soft now) did he get expelled or even just suspended? (no because now we're even SOFTER than a few years ago) - what he GOT was a school provided laptop and an hour of quiet time in the library during class each day - What The Fuck...

also lol Unseen, +1 parenting

First and foremost, I think these possible psychological problems stemming from corporal punishment is bullshit. Having said that, I don't really think that beating a child is right or necessary... at least at school age. I do understand its use to an extent with younger children, but anyone you can reason with I think other means should be used.

How about a day visit to a jail for a bunch of these kids? Might wake them up. Then maybe not. Dunno.

*shrugs*

just to rephrase, i dont beat him .. but i dont see anything wrong with smacking kids .. but im abit old school

So it's agreed, onus on parents. But how can the law force parents to parent in such a way? FACS usually only get involved if the kid is malnourished or something extreme.

I also have nothing against physical discipline, within reason. But as mentioned in a previous discussion on these forums, I also don't think it's necessary. Different strokes for different folks, but I was not hit once during my upbringing, and I turned out ok (I think).

pain is natures way of telling us not to do something again. touch something hot. you get burnt, etc.

Which is fine, unless someone deliberately burns you to get that messages across.

what's that got to do with anything? we're not talking about stubbing a cigarette out on a kid.