Oprah's school is tragic, but Jokela is symptomatic of something more dangerous

Last year, in the face of the new legislation relating to child abuse, I went out and bought a coffee-table-sized wooden book on child psychology. And what a joy it’s been — every time the kids give me crap, I hit them with it.

I mean, what are parents supposed to do? You can’t touch ’em, the teachers lecture by walkie-talkie while wearing bulletproof vests and the army’s no longer compulsory. So where are they going to learn about discipline?

My suggestion that we have them all spayed has been rejected out of hand — I got a letter from the human rights geniuses along the lines of “Dear sir, blah blah blah, wipe out the species, yadda yadda yadda, have you been assessed by any mental health specialists lately?”

Yet if we have regard to just a few of the latest stories in the world’s press, then all humour goes out the window. The system is failing the children and the product thereof is failing the system.

The Sowetan says South African schools are among the worst in Africa.

The Times of London has coverage on the child from a school in southern Finland who went beserk and massacred his headmistress and fellow pupils, and a photo gallery of the Virginia Tech massacre.

Topix has the story breaking in the US of a teacher from Nebraska who ran away with her 13-year-old pupil.

And the Scotsman and the Mail & Guardian Online have items on the disaster at Oprah’s school.

This is scratching a vast surface of tales about child abuse and violence and mayhem, which are becoming more and more frequent in schools around the world.

What happened at Oprah’s school, if it turns out to be true, is tragic. Child molestation and, as we saw above in Nebraska, abduction posing as a fling, are wholly unacceptable. But lest we forget, society has any number of weapons and safeguards to deal with this type of outrage.

Tough laws, registers of offenders, newspapers and other forms of media wait for schools where there is even a hint of this type of behaviour. The list is endless.

But as the laws on adults and teachers who fail to safeguard or infringe on the rights of children become tougher by the day, the laws regulating the behaviour of the children get slacker by the hour.

We have just recovered from the murder of a King Edward Secondary School pupil who was allegedly killed by pupils from a rival school.

According to a recent British survey, the age of criminals involved in violent crime is getting lower by the year. Reports of pupils carrying knives and guns are flooding the media.

Yet each year authorities seek out new and better ways to “safeguard” the rights of children and provide them with a more secure environment.

Unfortunately, while removing anything resembling tough sanctions by parents and teachers, they forget to explain how we are supposed to teach litte Johnny Untouchable that just as he has rights, he also has obligations to respect the rights of others.

Security and caring is shown by setting out and enforcing strict parameters within which children grow up; not by trying to be their pals or excusing disgusting behaviour.

The knock-on effect of allowing kids to run rampant in case we stunt their growth or creativity is breeding a generation of insecure monsters. When released from school they become aimless and aggressive in the face of an uncaring society with parents conditioned to allow them to do what they want.

What children want is for you to give a damn; not to shunt them off to malls for teenage sex or drugs so you can do whatever it is you do at the weekend.

People complain about bullying and children who turn to drugs and become unmanageable yet all the while removing the fear of any meaningful reprisal from those in a position of authority.

The longer the trend towards absolute rights with almost non-existent duties and obligations to respect the rights of others goes on, the more these headlines will dominate. These children become young adults and over and over again demonstrate a complete disregard for the rights of others. This is manifesting itself in the form of violent crime and massacres of the kind we witnessed at Jokela.

How can we expect children to respect others when each day they are being taught about their rights and freedoms? That anyone who dares come near them or shouts at them will be punished? What do you expect, then, when they later learn that while everyone is obssessed with their own rights, nobody gives a damn about anyone elses?

When the Virginia Tech and Jokela murderers massacred their fellow students, did they see the victims as people or merely as the bastards who dared to infringe on their rights? Explode the myth that they are protected by the state within this cocoon of rights.

Because if everyone has rights and nobody has a duty to respect those rights, nobody has any rights at all. So law is in the eye of the gun holder.

It’s like a car manufacturer getting rid of all quality safeguards and then throwing its hands up because all its vehicles keep breaking down.

It’s time to accept that the power of parents to discipline their children has to be reinstated — and teachers need to be allowed to cane those children who get out of hand. Reinstate national service and let the young men learn discipline while assisting the police in fighting crime.

If we carry on like this, the incidents are just going to increase in frequency — and for the state to then look to parents for answers on their children’s conduct is not only unfair, it’s actually absurd.

I’ll get me coat.