Let’s play close attention to what our kids need

The student stabs Raju Thakur (in light blue T-shirt)

After protection for our medical professionals, are our teachers going to need protection too? A 17-year-old student stabbed his coaching class tutor and later surrendered at the police station recently. The tutor is said to be stable and on his way to recovery. Reports stated that the student is believed to have attacked his teacher after being reprimanded for not focusing on his studies, sources said.

The teenager has been sent to a correction home. However, this puts the spotlight on just how sensitive some youngsters have become, how they have difficulty taking any kind of reproach whether at home or school, or in class, and attack the people who correct them.

We learn of youngsters hitting back, even murdering over being denied a phone or simply scolded for something, we hear of others dying by suicide over being stopped for going to a movie.

Younger people must be taught that tutors have their best interests in mind. This violence against our academics is a shameful no-no and it is vital to value human life above all. The older generations will recall the talking to they got from parents and teachers, they took it in the right spirit, it was for their good and to make a difference in their life for the better.

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Even if a student feels the reprimand was unjustified, he has the option of speaking to the tutor. Talking to peers, and analysing whether being hauled up was eventually justified is yet another way to approach this. One cannot have people attacking teachers with knives and guns.

Close attention must be paid to this teenager's mindset, too. Is he of criminal intent? Will he prove to be a danger to others when out of the correctional facility? Is there genuine regret and remorse and a willingness to change and make amends? This needs close attention.