Very lucky and totally stupid!

We have a high School, which backs onto a busy main road in the same way. My boys went to that School, when we found youngsters doing just that jumping the wall we campaigned for an opening in the wall and a green man crossing and got it. I cannot believe how lucky that boy is.

I've got no sympathy for him. He's a complete moron who might have caused serious damage to the bus or other road users. Surely he could be charged with some offence? Cretinously causing an accident perhaps? I bet you the bus driver is really pissed off with him too.

At this age we are all impervious to danger and risk. During the 39/45 war broken bits of Spifires, Hurricanes from crashes, including ordinance were traded in my school playground. One of my pals somehow acquired the control column from a Spitfire, but that never came on the school's market. The other treasures included ammunition, 303 and cannon shells. One madman decided to chuck the armed part of a cannon shell against the outer granite wall of the school. On seeing this I fled round the corner just before a loud deafening explosion, the nitwit appeared hopping in agony with a bit of metal stuck in his foot. He managed to return to classes as if nothing happened. However, next day we were all quizzed about it by the head, and of course knew nothing about this.
Then there was the time when a budding pyrotechnic idiot went back to an explosive device that had not gone off, and it blew up in his face, leaving him blind in one eye.
Plus ca change.

Levenax wrote:
I've got no sympathy for him. He's a complete moron who might have caused serious damage to the bus or other road users. Surely he could be charged with some offence? Cretinously causing an accident perhaps? I bet you the bus driver is really pissed off with him too.

Lev,

Surely when you were a boy, you did things that were considered stupid or dangerous.

It is the prerogative of the young in any generation to worry the adults and the prerogative of the adults to worry and scelp their lug.

LYDIA REID wrote:
Levenax wrote:
I've got no sympathy for him. He's a complete moron who might have caused serious damage to the bus or other road users. Surely he could be charged with some offence? Cretinously causing an accident perhaps? I bet you the bus driver is really pissed off with him too.

Lev,

Surely when you were a boy, you did things that were considered stupid or dangerous.

It is the prerogative of the young in any generation to worry the adults and the prerogative of the adults to worry and scelp their lug.

And what about the bus driver Lydia? How would he have been affected had the boy been killed? Just put it down to experience and boys being boys? Somehow I think the effect would have been slightly more serious than than. Lev is right. I'm sure we were all foolish when we were younger but what this boy did was a bit more than that. Fun is fun but putting your life and the lives of others at risk is just plain stupid.

Clare wrote:
LYDIA REID wrote:
Levenax wrote:
I've got no sympathy for him. He's a complete moron who might have caused serious damage to the bus or other road users. Surely he could be charged with some offence? Cretinously causing an accident perhaps? I bet you the bus driver is really pissed off with him too.

Lev,

Surely when you were a boy, you did things that were considered stupid or dangerous.

It is the prerogative of the young in any generation to worry the adults and the prerogative of the adults to worry and scelp their lug.

And what about the bus driver Lydia? How would he have been affected had the boy been killed? Just put it down to experience and boys being boys? Somehow I think the effect would have been slightly more serious than than. Lev is right. I'm sure we were all foolish when we were younger but what this boy did was a bit more than that. Fun is fun but putting your life and the lives of others at risk is just plain stupid.

I have no doubt every one of the children at that school going home that way jump over that wall.

Maybe we should look at the responsibility of the adults who have not created an opening in the wall and a crossing to keep them safe.

I have no doubt the bus driver would have been devastated and is even now counting his blessings, but it is our responsibility as adults to keep our children safe and if this lad was at school he is still probably referred to as a child. Within the same school their will be younger children with even less sense of responsibility. Where is the protection for them?

He seemed to catch his foot as he went over doing what he probably does every day twice a day that in my view does not mean he is a criminal trying to give the bus driver a heart attack. It means he is a very stupid boy who has I hope learned a very serious lesson and has hopefully set an example for other children in that they will not want to copy his actions.

I have a feeling that the reason we have a childhood is to learn and the reason we are given children is to teach them.

LYDIA REID wrote:

He seemed to catch his foot as he went over doing what he probably does every day twice a day that in my view does not mean he is a criminal trying to give the bus driver a heart attack. It means he is a very stupid boy who has I hope learned a very serious lesson and has hopefully set an example for other children in that they will not want to copy his actions.


Hear, hear.

TLJ agreed: Hear, hear. Seconded!

Lydia suggested: I have a feeling that the reason we have a childhood is to learn and the reason we are given children is to teach them. I also agree with that to a point Lydia. I would add, however, that I believe we also learn from our children.

Brenna1508 wrote:
TLJ agreed: Hear, hear. Seconded!

Lydia suggested: I have a feeling that the reason we have a childhood is to learn and the reason we are given children is to teach them. I also agree with that to a point Lydia. I would add, however, that I believe we also learn from our children.

From all our children I agree. We hopefully grow and learn with them, and with intelligence and self-will, never stop learning.

Nope he should think himself lucky he wasn't thrashed. He deserves national service at the least.

And his parents must be in need of some remedial classes for having a youngster who doesn't obey the rules and takes shortcuts.

He should be made to apologise to the bus driver and all the other citizens his selfish behaviour inconvenienced.

Make no mistake he's probably on his way to being a threat to society. In fact its probably already too late so lets neuter him and just segregate him from the normal decent folk.

He's a kid for God sake. He meant no harm and I'll bet he got a real fright. Plus there's no sort of personality details so we have no way of knowing if he's a 'good kid', a 'bit of a tearaway' or what sort of person he is.
We don't know why he took that shortcut. Was his mum ill so he was trying to get home to help her? Was it his turn to walk his dog and he was excited?

Leave him off, show a bit of human sympathy and compassion.

Lydia, he JUMPED over a railing into the path of traffic on a busy road. How on earth is that the fault of adults? There was a crossing just yards away.

Clare asks:
Lydia, he JUMPED over a railing into the path of traffic on a busy road. How on earth is that the fault of adults? There was a crossing just yards away.
I think Lydia was suggesting that if adults had created an opening in the wall, and a crossing to keep them safe, this young man would have had nothing to jump over.

Lydia wrote:
Maybe we should look at the responsibility of the adults who have not created an opening in the wall and a crossing to keep them safe.
Plainly, prevention is better than cure, and it is realistic not to expect mature judgement from the young, but to design such crossings with the young in mind, and in order to minimise risk.

I think you have said it all Robin.

When my boys were young we faced exactly that problem and encountered resistance when we wanted a space or hole in the wall, which incidentally gave the residents of the area a short cut into the park which backs onto the Secondary School.

We were the parents with the God given right and responsibility to protect our offspring.

We sat on the main road and blocked the traffic until a council official told us we would get not only the hole in the wall but also a crossing. We sat with our babies in prams and our dogs and the local grannies joined in.

The reason we did that, a young boy jumped the wall as all the children did to save them a twenty-minute walk and he faced years of treatment. Knowing that the young will be young when they have football practice, homework to do before they could go swimming, or a hundred other reasons, we fought for a sensible solution.

It is indeed interesting to read the Children’s (Scotland) Act; each time it refers to parenting, it discusses rights and responsibilities.

Children are children. I wish I could go back and take away every heartache I ever caused my parents but I can’t because although a tomboy as a child I was otherwise very normal and did all the normal childish things. It is how we learn to be people. Children are just adults with L-plates on.