Linda Hall: Terrible message to send our youth

Linda Hall, Assistant Editor, Hawke's Bay Today.

You would be forgiven for thinking society had slipped back hundreds of years this past week.

Back to a time when men settled their differences with fists in drinking taverns and had shootouts on the street.

Violence was accepted. It's not today. Organisations such as Zonta, Women's Refuge and Dove must despair when they work so hard to get the message out there that it is not okay to hit people when a judge decides to let a "rugby star " walk out of court free of conviction after assaulting four people - two of them women.

It is unbelievable. Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy even wrote a character reference for Losi Filipo. I'd really like to know if the mayor even knew him. Surely he must have, otherwise why he would put his reputation on the line?

What an absolutely terrible message this is sending our youth. Doesn't matter if you hit people, as long as you are a promising rugby player. If you are no good and haven't scored a try in your past five games - guess what? You go to jail.

Then if that wasn't bad enough, I couldn't believe it when I heard Luke Tipene's killer, Vincent Skeen, had been before the parole board just six weeks after his trial. Yes - just six weeks into a five-year prison sentence for manslaughter he applied for parole.
Thank goodness common sense prevailed this time and it was denied.

I don't know how the parole hearing come about but surely he has to go through his lawyer. I would hope that any lawyer would talk their client out of such a senseless procedure.

What sort of message is this sending to the family and friends of the victim? They have been through enough. I think five years for manslaughter is way too lenient, anyway.
I fear where it will all end, especially when you read about violence erupting at schools with fighting in the playground and teachers too scared to step in for fear of getting charged with assault.

The Herald on Sunday reported yesterday "that more than a year after a task force was set up to look at rules around restraint and seclusion, legal debate has delayed the ministry from releasing guidelines".

I hate to think what they will come up with. If teachers are forced to let kids fight, someone is going to get seriously hurt and then who will parents blame? The teachers, of course. Not the people sitting in offices making senseless decisions.

Now for something much lighter. Yesterday was the last day of the season for Taniwha Daffodils, just south of Waipukurau on State Highway 2.

So even though it was raining we set off in the hope it would clear up. When we arrived the sun was peeping through the clouds and there wasn't a raindrop in sight.
However, signs of all the raindrops of the previous week were everywhere - puddles, mud and some very sad-looking daffodils.

It didn't bother us, though. We had gumboots and, armed with our blue buckets, we set out to find some nice flowers.

The children with us loved it, especially the mud. It was so relaxing wandering among the blooms in a wide-open space, filling my bucket with prettiness.

The house smells like spring, our money went to Plunket and a good time was had by all.