Letters: Bullies should be served justice

Bullies should face justice, says a reader. Photo / Getty Images (posed by models)

Speaking of lasting emotional consequences from corporal punishment (Opinion, December 28), I suffered lasting physical and emotional consequences after being in a class of violent bullies for a year when I was 11.

They were all early developers and terrified our stream of teachers, who each lasted a matter of weeks.

Most of those bullies went on to careers with the Hell's Angels and the Mongrel Mob, but while at school they robbed all the kids in their classes of an education and of the ability to concentrate.

I learned nothing but four-letter words during that year and entered the next year miles behind everyone else.

I think it is entirely fair that those bullies, who inflicted so much physical, educational and emotional harm on others, should suffer a little bit of "physical" harm themselves.

Perhaps one day an expert will equate the lack of natural justice at school with the appalling suicide rate.

If the deeply unfair school practice of rewarding abusers and punishing victims (which is what we do now) is true of society at large, what kid would want to grow up?

GJ Philip
Taupo

A worthwhile attraction

As the Children's Art House is no longer a viable concern perhaps the council could consider linking it again to the museum and gardens complex.

This cottage, built for the first appointed gardener, shows the superb craftsmanship in an age before electric saws were invented.

A previous council considered making it into a show-home of the colonial days but this idea was dropped and a series of life-like exhibits was set up in the museum instead.

Alas, recent removing of the exhibits extinguished a valuable source of information, especially for children wanting to know how their forebears lived.

The cottage, if set up in colonial style, would be a worthwhile attraction for locals and tourists.

Hugh Wilson
Rotorua

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