Editorial: Culture of the bash thriving

Violence begets violence. We see enough of it in Hawke's Bay to know this is true.

A 14-year-old Flaxmere College schoolgirl is allegedly set upon by two other girls with such violence that her back is broken and she now has screws inserted in her skull and is wearing a halo brace.

There are two sides to most stories and we don't know why this attack occurred but nothing justifies such brutal behaviour.

Now the two alleged teenage offenders face charges of serious assault, an outcome which will have a massive effect on their lives. One has to wonder whether they have the critical faculties to have foreseen the possible consequences of their actions.

A lesson for other youth? Hardly, if you judge by the tone of some of the Facebook comments flying around the teenage community in the wake of this incident. There is no shortage of the sort of "gangsta" posturing and threats you would imagine accompanies the mindset of girls prepared to pulverise each other and post the bashing on YouTube.

It speaks to a level of delusion about the real-world harm caused by violence that would beggar belief did we not know this culture of the bash is thriving in the Bay.

The bad news is we are not alone. Earlier this year, graphic cellphone video footage of another brutal assault involving girls was doing the rounds of students in Wanganui.

A 15-year-old Wanganui Girls' College student was left bleeding from her ears and needing hospital treatment from an attack outside the school grounds. She was pushed to the ground by another Girls' College student, then kicked, punched and finally had her head stomped upon.

Where do these kids think they are living - The Bronx?

And where do they think such behaviour will take them?

Judge Geoff Rea provided an answer to that question this week when he sent three teenagers - males, just a couple of summers older than the girls mentioned above - to jail for serious assaults in Hawke's Bay. That is what violence begets.