Re - targetting youth

Sarah McCullough | May 27, 2020

Last week I read a letter to the editor about break-ins at the old Hinchinbrooke Public School. I was sad to see that youth were being targeted as the culprits for these break-ins. Currently we are in the midst of celebrating Youth Month and highlighting youth in this community for all the hard work they do. To see a claim accusing youth as being responsible for an incident without evidence is frustrating.

In a time where youth are being isolated at home (maybe not in a positive environment), struggling to take on the emergency online learning, and fighting feelings of loneliness we should not be judging youth. Our youth have many barriers to face in life and being deemed a delinquent just for being a youth should not be one of those barriers.

I am not saying this incident was not done by a youth but I am saying it is NOT always youth who are behind acts such as these break-ins. We should not label a whole age group as bad just because of one person’s actions.