Fairfield College, Hamilton. Another Knife Incident In A NZ School

What is it with knives in NZ schools right now? there’s been a veritable rash of knife incidents over the last few weeks.

A few days ago we wrote about how the village was failing the child when kids used violence  to sort out their differences, with some parents even scheduling fights for their daughters  in Northland and fights being shown on YouTube.

School violence is becoming ‘family business’ in New Zealand and it’s time to put a stop to it, before anyone else gets hurt…or worse.  777 teachers were assaulted at work during 2008-2009 and there were 1167 incidents of violence, including 51 grievous assaults last year across all educational institutions, including 14 of stabbing and cutting with a weapon. (Statistics NZ)

Schools in New Zealand have open campuses at present and anyone is able to walk into most school grounds un-challenged.

Background

“A knife has been brandished at a school in Hamilton. Police were called to Fairfield College at just after 11am and Senior Sergeant Greg Dunn says enquiries so far, suggest a 26-year-old man went to the school after his younger brother came home saying he was being threatened.

Senior Sergeant Dunn says when the man confronted students, a larger group converged and he pulled a knife. The man then got back into the car and drove off.

The two brothers were tracked to a nearby house and are currently being interviewed by police. The 26-year-old is likely to face charges.”

The incident follows the arrest of two sisters who allegedly attacked a Year 13 girl at the school last year. Other students chased the 17-year-old girl’s boyfriend with sticks as he came to her aid (source)

It is the third knife incident at a NZ school this month, and the second in Hamilton: A 15-year-old girl from Hamilton Girls’ High School was charged with assault and threatening to kill and teacher Steve Hose was stabbed in the back and shoulder by a student at Te Puke High School, Bay of Plenty.

Read also a blog from earlier today:  NZ Teachers Facing More Abuse

NZ Teachers Facing More Abuse

We’ve often written about both youth and school violence on this blog because it’s increasing in both severity and prevalence, it affects migrants with school age children and those who move to NZ to take up teaching positions. It also has a big impact on the local communities in which migrants live.

777 teachers were assaulted at work during 2008-9.  442 of them required ACC funded treatment for their injuries. Weapons are increasingly common place in NZ’s schools.

Many people move to NZ because they believe it to be a safer place in which to live and raise kids. However, the reality is that at least two secondary school teachers are seriously assaulted by pupils every school day and little can be done to prevent those assaults according to a survey that’s just been published (source):

(Update: within hours of writing this blog an adult entered Fairfield College in Hamilton armed with a knife, read about it here)

Teacher abuse appears to be on the increase, putting teachers under greater stress, according to a survey carried out by the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA).

The survey showed at least two secondary teachers were seriously assaulted by pupils every school day, The Dominion Post reported today.

PPTA president Kate Gainsford said some teachers were suffering physical injury and psychological effects from working in a “physically and verbally threatening and stressful environment“.

“The [education] ministry’s figures only cover suspensions and stand-downs, not actual assaults.”

Preliminary findings of the survey of the union’s 18,000 members showed teachers were under increasing stress from the threat of assault.

Secondary Principals Council deputy-chairman Terry Collett said little could be done to prevent physical assaults. “There’s always the odd kid who freaks out,” he said.

Secondary Principals Association president Patrick Walsh said abusive language was becoming more common in schools. “In terms of assault [we are] getting students who barge and push teachers.”

The survey results came in the wake of several high profile violent incidents in schools.

Te Puke High School teacher Steve Hose was allegedly stabbed by a pupil in his classroom, three wounds.

A teacher managed to talk down a 15-year-old girl at Hamilton Girls’ High School after she allegedly threatened classmates with a knife.

A pupil at Kapiti College threw chairs through five windows in a violent outburst….”

The report left out teacher David Warren who was stabbed in front of his students, it didn’t mention Lois Dear who was battered to death by a youth in her classroom. If school isn’t a safe place in New Zealand, a ‘sanctuary’, where is? How easily these incidents get forgotten about.

But why is this happening? A total  breakdown in family life and support at home for young people, generations of parents with no parenting skills to pass on, poverty, widespread drug and alcohol abuse, a culture of brutality and mental health issues are all factors. For further details read blogs:

NZ A Great Place to Raise Kids? Porirua’s Midnight Express

NZ Teachers Need More Power to Protect Themselves

Two More Teachers Assaulted In Tauranga

Bullying to Blame For Te Puke Teacher Stabbing

Kids in New Zealand – The Village Lets Them Down

“Poor” NZ Among Lowest In OECD For Education Spending

NZ Scores Second Worst in the World For Bullying in Schools

Mia Pusch’s Killer To Pay $5,000

Mia Pusch

The Wanganui truck driver who admitted killing Mia Pusch through careless driving has had his licence suspended for just a year and has been ordered to pay a measly $5,000 in reparation to her family (source)

Mia Pusch, 19, was a German tourist who had been backpacking through New Zealand on her bike “pinkie”. She died on 5  January after being hit by a truck travelling in the same direction whilst riding along State Highway 3 near Bulls.

She was one of many cyclists to have been killed or injured on New Zealand’s roads every year. Shortly before her death she’d written in her blog about the dangers of cycling in the country and the perils presented by passing truck drivers. Some would sneak up at high speed to well within her safety zone (0.5 -1.0 metres)  and then overtake with horns blaring, leaving her shaking with adrenaline:

“When one is a cyclist on New Zealand roads, one is not only torn from one’s daydreams by diving-bombing magpies but is more often threatened by a more nasty species that really requires more attention: truck drivers,” Ms Pusch wrote.

“They swerve past the cyclists who are struggling under their own steam at breakneck speed, mainly within only a half-metre to a metre gap, all the while aggressively honking their horn.”

The sentence, such as it is, will do little to deter other truck drivers, or road users, from cavalier attitudes towards cyclists in New Zealand.Our condolences again go out to Gesa  Marcus and other family members and friends at this difficult time.

Mia’s death sparked calls for mandatory minimum passing distances for vehicles overtaking cyclists – from between 1 to 1.5 metres, but all of them were ignored.

Other cyclists to have to have been killed or injured in NZ recently include the following people, none of the drivers responsible received particularly punitive sentences:

German tourist Stephan Stoermer had been on a cycling world tour since 2006, he had been safely winding his way through 26 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia since early 2006 before arriving in New Zealand. He died a week before his tour was scheduled to end when he was hit by a logging truck near Te Puke in the Bay of Plenty on March 12, 2009.

Another German cyclist died on 6 August 2009 in a hit an run at Leeston, 45 km south west of Christchurch. 34 year old Jens Richardon had been living in NZ for a few years. He must have been quite familiar with the peculiarities of the roads and the local driving habits. His body was eventually discovered by a passing motorist at 7.30pm and police located the offender’s car, a dark blue BMW 3251, 20km away.

The motorist responsible for Jens’ death  was seen slumped over a bar shortly before the crash. Phillip Kirkwood Hamilton, 40, of Southbridge, pleaded guilty on 6 November 2009 to driving under the influence of alcohol causing death and failing to stop for an injury accident. He had drunk around 10 pints of beer at a bar in Rolleston from around 2.30pm that day. He told police he knew he had hit a cyclist but panicked because he had been drinking.

The judge took pity on him a gave him a sentence of home detention.

But soft sentences are the norm in crashes involving cyclists.

Drunk driver, 71 year old Alison Downer, bagged a lenient two year sentence for her 4th conviction after she hit and killed Frank van Kampen as he was cycling along State Highway 1 in Te Horo on September 18 2009.  Mr van Kampen’s partner wept through the hearing at Palmerston North District Court and said that she was disgusted by the sentence. Can you believe that Downer’s defence lawyer was alleged to have told the judge that “this was not the worst type of offending because there was only one victim.”

And in the ‘Tamaki Drive Carnage’ a female student lost her licence for 6 months and was ordered to pay $1,000 to each of her victims after she ploughed into a pack of cyclists travelling along Tamaki Drive, Auckland. The cyclists, one of whom suffered long term brain injuries and may never be able to work again, said that the sentence was far too lenient.

North Shore doctor Graham Robinson was struck and killed whilst cycling outside of Helensville. The driver of a white Toyota Hillux sped off after hitting him and police have yet to track him down, despite having an excellent description of the vehicle.

Reporter Heather McCracken complied a report with details of cycling fatalities and high number of injuries that she was aware of on NZ’s roads during 2009:

Fatal cost of riding your bike
Seven cyclists have been killed so far this year on New Zealand roads.
Last year 10 riders were killed and almost 900 injured, with most crashes occurring at intersections on urban roads.
Last weekend cyclist Frank van Kampen, 46, was killed after being struck by a car near Otaki.
A 34-year-old cyclist was killed last month in a hit-and-run accident near Leeston, Christchurch.
Another Christchurch crash took the life of a 19-year-old cyclist in July.
Two cyclists have been killed in the Bay of Plenty, one in a May accident at a Mt Maunganui roundabout, and another following a crash involving a logging truck near Te Puke in March.
Two Dunedin cyclists have also lost their lives – one after colliding with a car in the city in March, and another in a crash outside of Mosgiel in June.”

Pretty awful figures for such a small country. NZ does have the worlds highest car ownership – 720 per 1000 people, even more than the United States’ 675 per 1000 people (in 2005) and when that’s combined with intolerance towards other road users the weaker and more vulnerable need to be better protected than they are at present.

We suggest a national network of safe cycling routes, in which bike riders are protected from collision hazards with motor vehicles and more publicity given to visitors about which roads are dangerous for cyclists, so that they may plan out their holidays around those routes before they leave home.

Something has to be done to re-educate NZ drivers too, perhaps a national advertising campaign to make them more aware of the difficulties cyclists face and that the roads are for all to share, a revision of the driving test and tougher penalties for dangerous driving causing death or injury. The introduction of mandatory safe passing distances and stiffer penalties are needed desperately, because at the moment cyclists are seen as fair game.

Meawhile, John Key has said he is “unconcerned” about delays to the National Cycleway, so far only 10km of it has been formed and it’s starting to look like just another PR/Tourism stunt that was hastily put together after all the recent cycling injuries and deaths:

The Prime Minister’s pet project, the national cycleway, appears to have run into problems.

Only about 10 kilometres of new track has been developed since John Key launched the 3,000 kilometre project a year ago.

The scheme was launched amid much fanfare and touted as a move to help communities through tough economic times. Fifty-million-dollars has been set aside for the trails.

However Mr Key says he is happy with the progress. He puts the delays down to problems with contracts and says once those are sorted out, building the actual trails will be an easy job.

Who’s he kidding?

For other information about NZ poor road death and injury statistics see “Road death toll increases” and “NZ’s roads described as killing fields”

See also our post: Facebook group set up in memory of Mia Pusch and other posts tagged Mia Pusch.

New Zealand A Great Place To Raise Kids? Porirua’s Midnight Express

New Zealand is a great place to raise kids.

That’s the reason that many people cite for wanting to relocate their families to New Zealand, or they’ll wistfully opine that NZ is the  place where ‘kids can be kids for longer’ but how realistic are those aspirations and what’s life really like for young people?

Children in New Zealand get a pretty raw deal – the country is ranked joint third in the world by UNICEF for the highest number of  child maltreatment deaths (1.2 per 100,000 children) only the US and Mexico have more. Young  people also feature highly in crime statistics, both as perpetrators and victims.

Kiwi youth suffer some of the worst health outcomes in the developed world. New Zealand youth have higher rates of mental illness, suicide, teen pregnancy and suffered more injuries than young people in other OECD countries. (source)

In addition to an alarming teen suicide rate kids also have a problem with alcohol. So much so that the Chief Coroner says he is shocked and frustrated by the high number of very young teens (some as young as 13) who drink themselves to death in New Zealand. It’s another symptom of the country’s hard drinking/binge drinking culture and a bored, disaffected youth.

One thing we’ve noticed over the last year or so are the increasing numbers of children involved in violent crimes such as armed robberies and muggings. The latest of which was the gang of teenagers that held up the Ranui Food Bar and Takeaway with hammers and a gun in West Auckland last night, just as the shop was closing at 9pm. Their ill gotten gains included of all things a fresh stock of ice creams from a freezer. (source)

“…A girl wearing a cap and hoodie pulled over her face pointed a gun at owner Yunan Zheng, who was vacuuming the front of the shop.

“The girl with the gun said, ‘Hurry up, give us some money’,” Zheng said.

Two others brandished hammers as they rushed into the shop and filled backpacks with icecreams from a freezer.

One tried to take cash from the till but was unable to open the drawer.

The group were caught on security camera, but wore hoods pulled over their head, and scarves or T-shirts wrapped around their faces.

Zheng said at least three of the robbers were girls, and suspected two were the same pair who robbed the shop on New Year’s Eve, when they made off with cash from the till.

The two robberies were the first incidents in five years at the Swanson Rd business…” more

The Herald went on to remind its readers that shops had been robbed by sweet toothed gangs of armed kids before in Auckland:

“It’s not the first time young offenders have held up Auckland shopowners for lollies (ed. sweets) and icecreams.

In March last year three boys robbed the Edendale Superette in central Auckland at gunpoint, filling a bag with icecreams and chocolate and taking cigarettes and about $400 in cash.

Shopkeeper Shazia Hussain was alone in the shop with her two-month-old baby at the time.

The boys had been captured on security camera in the shop earlier that day with their faces uncovered.”

But sometimes these gangs of kids become excessively violent and injure their victims, and they’re not all looking for lollies and icecreams either as other recent robberies have demonstrated:

Asian businessman Richard Tang was stabbed eight times by a gang of bandana wearing youths who stormed into his dairy in Papakura, they escaped with just $200.

In Papkura a gang of five kids (two aged 17 and three aged 14) held a pistol to the head of Ben Sun as they robbed his dairy in New Plymouth.

Pregnant woman, Mrs Sarah Fergusson, was robbed by a 16 year old youth wielding a knife at her fruit and vegetable shop, also in New Plymouth.

The rise in youth offending has been attributed to the breakdown of family life in certain areas of New Zealand, the effects of the recession, grinding poverty and kids being treated far too leniently by the justice system.

There’s an excellent feature article written by Matt Calman in the Dominion Post, in which he talks about The Midnight Express that patrols the streets of Porirua (an area very popular with western migrants)  their mission is to keep youth – mainly between 11 and 18 – safe in the “unsociable” hours of the night and early morning. It’s worth a read if you have children and are thinking of moving them to NZ for a ‘better life’.

If you’re already living there, what are your kids doing this evening?

“It’s a Safe Ride on the Midnight Express“

…Ms Barnden says every time the team heads out, there is the potential for danger but it is not the youth they fear. “It’s not actually the kids that are dangerous. It’s the environment. We don’t know who does carry a knife. It’s purely because there’s no structure at night.”

It ticks past 11pm as the van drives past the three teenage girls huddling beside the Hill 16 bar. One yells out: “Get lost Midnight!”

“…When they reach Calliope Park the youth workers leave the van for about an hour and chat to a 20member group aged mainly 15 and 16. As they arrive, two drunken teenage girls stumble, arm-in-arm, towards their friends gathered in the dark near the play equipment. The park is one of the most popular meeting points for youth in Porirua East…

…Ms Barnden says the main threat to youth late at night is from adults, particularly a small number of suspected sexual predators they have seen approaching teens.

The youth workers carry suspect- description forms, provided by a security firm, and take details of potential offenders to pass on to police.

When they see these men talking to the teens they will enter the conversation so the men know they have been noticed.

One man in his late 40s or early 50s carries a motorcycle helmet and tells teens he is a tramper from Titahi Bay. He offers them cigarettes and his jacket and carries $200 cash with him…

“He plays cat and mouse with intoxicated girls,” Ms Barnden says. “Apparently he has been seen in Johnsonville now.”

Migrants’ Tales – No Work In Blenheim, Moved To Christchurch

Continuing in our series of Migrants’ Tales – first hand accounts of the migrant experience in New Zealand, taken from locations around the net.

Today’s tale is taken from an immigration forum, written by the wife of a carpenter.

The couple moved from Guernsey to Blenheim, but found work in very short supply and that Kiwis were offered what work there was in preference to immigrants.

Despite the very tight job market and a ‘jobs for kiwis‘ policy, immigrants are still being told that there are skills shortages in New Zealand because of a supposed ‘shortage of local labour’ and are actively encouraged to migrate with nothing more than work-to-residence visas.

However, there is no safety net whatsoever for these people and they must support themselves if they cannot find work, or become destitute. Many do fail and skilled migrants from some western countries have been reduced to living on the streets or in vehicles.

In order to find work this couple moved to Christchurch and the husband now works for an agency. Whether this arrangement will work out long-term remains to be seen, for the time being they are trying their best and we wish them well:

“Hello All,

Well, J* and I have now been in NZ for almost 4 months. We came over without job offers so it has been a bit of a struggle at times but things are now going in the right direction.

We were based in Blenheim and were looking for employment in Marlborough/Nelson region. After 10 weeks of applying for numerous jobs, neither of us could get full time employment. J* is a carpenter and managed to get a weeks temporary work but they were not in a position to take him on full time.

We were getting extreamly disheartened and when we asked some of the businesses why they turned us down, the general response was that they were giving preference to Kiwi applications.

Well, I can kind of understand this but it is a shame that they are not choosing applicants who may be more suited or better qualified for the job because they are not Kiwi’s.

So, to cut a long story short, we handed in our notice on our rental in Blenheim, threw our furniture in the back of a lorry and moved to Christchurch!

J* signed up with a trades agency and is now working with a team of carpenters and joiners on the new building opposite the Police Station on Hereford Street.

We are in a rental in Sumner until October and hopefully by then we will have found a place to buy.

So, after a wobbly start, we seem to now be enjoying life in NZ and are looking forward to making some friends and getting properly involved in Kiwi life.

S.”

This is a reply that was left for them from someone in Nelson, in a similar situation

“Good luck I know what you mean about looking for work I have been out of work since December and I’m still looking I think everyone has my CV now. It does make me so unhappy that kiwis can treat you like that, most don’t even get back in touch with you. Its not what you know its who. We live in Wakefield Nelson.
I don’t want to go back to the UK as it is really nice here but i just don’t know how long we can live on just one wage.

Anyway good luck with the whole thing hope it all works out for you take care.”

For background to the unemployment situation in New Zealand you may wish to read a blog post we wrote yesterday – “Massive Rush For Jobs in Dunedin“. People from all walks of life, including skilled tradespeople, flooded the Bunnings Warehouse DIY store with thousands of applications for 110 jobs.

It was a similar situation to that experienced in Auckland where a Countdown supermarket in South Auckland generated a flood of applications and 2500 people turned up to apply for one of 150 jobs.

Also Read:

Migrants’ Tales – 7 Months In and No Work For Tradesman Husband – depression and other problems finding work in the North Shore, Auckland.

Migrants’ Tales – Teacher Duped By the Hype and Couldn’t Find Work – Qualified US teacher feels duped by NZ immigration hype

Dumb down, if you want to get a job in New Zealand - job seekers being advised to leave qualifications off their CVs so that they can get a job.

Would you like a future with that? The Burgerization of McZealand – The Dept. of Work and Income have struck a deal with a fast food giant to provide work and take 7,000 people off the dole queue, at a cost of $16,000 a head.

Philippines warns citizens about NZ work to residence scheme -“Philippines consul-general Emilie Shi says Immigration New Zealand is not doing enough to warn would-be applicants about the difficulties of finding a job or telling them that Kiwis will be given preference by employers. “Immigration New Zealand continues to say what a great place this country is to come live and work in, but they cover up the fact that it is very difficult to find a job here, or that they will be treated as second-class workers under the scheme”

NZ immigrants forced to live in Third World Conditions – “A migrant worker from Russia said he spent his last $1500 in February on a van which had now become his home:

“Before I bought the van, I had nowhere to go and I had been sleeping on the streets since I lost my job last year, but I knew winter was coming and this is the cheapest way to make sure I have shelter,” he said.

The former engineer, who has a work permit that runs until September next year, says he knows which office and commercial buildings have shower facilities that he can use early in the mornings before workers arrive.

A 33-year-old German architect, who was made redundant a month after she gained her New Zealand residency last year, said she had been living in a $1200 van with her partner, also unemployed, since Christmas…”