Teenaged VIOLENCE on the rise?

A 16-year-old student threw a chair at his vice-principal, in front of his classmates. Three days later, a 14-year-old schoolboy punched his female form teacher and the school's full-time adult male counsellor. The student has since been suspended.

In my own voluntary community work, there have been cases of family violence involving teenaged children beating their parents. Why do children and students resort to all these violent acts? Even the counsellor got punched? Are such students necessarily mentally-challenged?

Anyone attempting to single out any single contributing factor to this problem that is increasing in frequency and intensity is too simplistic in his thinking and approach. The problem is a multi-faceted one involving several parties such as home, school, community and the global trend.

Are students being too stressed up by the competitive nature of education in Singapore? Are parents being over-protective of their children to the extent that children get overboard in their conduct and behaviours? Are children being neglected by their parents? Are schools too compromising in administering punishment? Are schools pushing to hard for academic excellence at the expense of moral values and character building? Are the teenaged students getting too addicted to computer gamings which are typically violent in nature?

Frankly, such problems are not proprietary to Singapore only. Look at similar incidents that happen regularly in other parts of the world. I think all the stakeholders should do their individual reflections and make the necessary modifications and adjustments to improve such situations