Police patrol for school children!?

[Jojopumpkinmama]

I was on the bus coming home from a shopping trip with my baby girl the other week. It was school chucking out time and at one of the bus stops there were ? and I am not exaggerating ? nine community support police officers on patrol to make sure the school children didn?t do anything naughty.

We adults seem to have lost our confidence in coping with high spirited children once in a while. The press regularly report violent crime among young people and this seems to have influenced how we see them. But having a police patrol makes me feel we do not respect our young people. They are often just children doing things children do ? making a lot of noise, pushing and shoving a bit. And they are just as much a part of our community as everyone else, with all their quirks and habits we don?t like. I have commuted to London to work for years and find sharing a bus with a group of noisy children a piece of cake in comparison!

It?s ridiculous that we feel we need protecting.

[dilemma456]

The police wouldn't be there in those numbers unless there'd been specific complaints or there were safety issues for the children.

YABU

[fedupofnamechanging]

It does seem like overkill, unless they were there in response to a specific incident. I have been a teacher (not always in 'nice' schools) and the majority of teenagers were lovely. By contrast, some of the most rude people I have ever met were middle aged/elderly.

When I have been waiting for a bus, the people queue jumping and pushing to the front were the older passengers.

[OuchPassVodka]

Our local commuinty support officers actually do a really good job at calming things down, their regular presence means that when they do have to deal with issues they actually get more respect now. They have a laugh and a joke with the kids, recognise faces and ask after people. Teenagers pretend not to like it but they still talk to them. It does help calm things down.

We had high prescence at the start of term due to road works, i actually miss their prescence now that they have gone as it was nice to see someone smile in the morning rather then all the harassed faces of the parents. here they really are part of the community rather then someone who appears when there is trouble and has little knowledge of the community.

uabu.