Moderator:

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for allocating your time on ourStudent Forum at
Dewan Bestari, Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seri Melur.We are here to listen for
a few opinions on the increasing crime rate amongschool children.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us think of this situation, you are happy thatyour child is
going to school and studying well. But one day, the child comesback with few marks
on his body. When you ask how it happened, the childsaid that somebody has
beaten him in the school. This painful and dreadfulact is called school violence and
it is creating a lot of trouble among pupils.

We are proud to be here today to share and gain knowledge on what isthe factors
that increase crime rate among school children. I would like tointroduce our panel for
todays forum. On my right is Mr. Mohd Hisham, thepresident of Bumi Hijau Society,
Miss Nasrah who is the president of theEnglish Language Society, is just beside
him, Well on my left is Miss Faezahwho is the president of the School Prefect Board
and Miss Rozilah who sittingbeside her is the president of The Girl Guide. They will
be sharing theiropinion on these matters and what actually cause the crime rate.

Mr. Hisham, in your opinion, what is the main cause that increased thecrime rate
among school children?

Speaker 1:

Thank you Miss Zashila. There are many reasons that might becomethe factors that
increase the crime rate among school children. The mainreason on the increasing
crime rate among the school children is due to lackof parental guidance to the
children. Parents become increasingly busy withtheir job and don't spend enough
time with their children. They don't havetime to talk to them, listen to them, know
their problems and simply don'tknow their children enough. As a result children don't
get enough attentionthey need and deserve so they turn to anti-social behavior in
hope it willeventually alarm the parents and remind them of their existence after
beingnotified by the teachers, even if the kids have to deal with
negativeconsequences afterwards. Lack of proper parental guidance is a
maincontributory factor for disciplinary behavior among children. Thecommunication
gap between parents and their children may be due to manyparents being young
and ill-prepared for parenting. On most occasions,students with rude behavior come
from little supervision backgrounds wherethey receive at home. Many parents didnt
recognize that most studentsmisbehave to get attention. I think, parents should
communicate more withtheir children because this approach can be an effective
measure to solvethe problem. Parents have to understand their children before
addressingtheir problems. I believe that many parents seldom interact with
theirchildren on matters of relationships . Parents didnt recognize the changesfrom
childhood and try to find out the issues that might be affecting them.Parents cannot
enlighten their children when they do not have theknowledge, they failed to connect
with their children and that is the reasonthey cannot solved the children problem.
This communication gap, hasallowed the children to venture into various types of
negative behavior. Therefore, parents should be more alert of their children to
prevent thesematters to arise.

Moderator:

Thank you Mr. Hisham, that was really great ideas on factors thatincreased the
crimes rate among school children. How about you MissNasrah, do you think of any
other factors that you think should be the mostto raise the crimes rate among them?

Speaker 2:

Thank you Miss Moderator. I agreed with the opinion that increasing of crime rate
among school children could be due to lack of parental guidance.But, in my opinion,
the most increased factors are due to a major cause of indiscipline among children. I
feel that all schools must have sports,environmental and other clubs to channel
students negative energy intopositive and productive behavior. Schools, irrespective
of their track recordin discipline, should institute a mentoring programmed. This will
not onlyensure that there are disciplined students in schools, but also play a vitalrole
in building their self-esteem. The behavior displayed by the children atschool is quite
the opposite of the one they show when at home. I proposethat all class teachers
should have clearly established rules governingstudents behavior, penalties for the
various kinds of mistakes and the rulesmust be rigidly enforced by the teachers. The
Ministry of Education recently instituted several interventions to addressthe problem
of indiscipline in school. These include the placement of Guidance Counselors in
schools where the problem has been reported themost. The Health and Family Life
Education programmed will also beintroduced in more schools and will be part of the
curriculum in the nextacademic year according to ministry officials. In addition, the
Ministry hasalso been working to resuscitate and strengthen the Parent
TeacherAssociations (PTAs) in school as parents have an important role to play
inimparting values of discipline and proper conduct to their children. A nationalPTA
Coordinator was recently appointed to oversee the process. Morerecently,
stakeholders at the education forum have proposed theintroduction of a special
training programmed for parents to sensitize themof their roles and responsibilities.
It was not determined who will take on theresponsibility of the training workshops for
parents

Moderator:

Thank you Mr. Hisham, which was really great ideas on factors thatincreased the
crimes rate among school children. How about you MadamRozilah, do you have any
other factors that you think should be the most torise the crimes rate among them?

Speaker 3:

Thank you Madam Moderator. Those factors might be factors that increasedcrime
rate among school children. I agreed with the opinion but the mostfactors that
increasing of crime rate among school children is due toinfluence of the mass
media. Mass media has affected our way of lifestyle,socialization, living patterns and
personality. It has not only affected uspersonally, but our young adults as well. The
influence it has on ourteenagers, dictates their actions. Weather it is by television or
newspapers,our teenagers is affected by it. The pressures that young adults face to
fit in,is tremendous. Movies, as well, have a large influence on our teenagers.
Teenagers spend a large amount of time in front of the television,
readingmagazines, or on the internet. They try to adapt to what they see and hear.
Teenagers also imitate what they see. The media today is responsible for body
image, and self worth, and this iswhere we see several teenagers suffer from
inferiority complex, thusresorting to unhealthy eating habits and weight loss. The
media sells sex,drugs, and smoking by the movies and advertisement they show.
Thesenegative effects of the media on teenagers are controlling every part of
theirsocial life. Television, the internet, newspapers, magazines, andadvertisement
bombard them.

Many media outlets increase aggressive tendencies in teenager. They wantthe

latest clothing, the latest hairstyle, the newest cars, and so the viciouscycle
continues.We know that the media sometimes fail to tell the real deal about how
onecan obtain or achieve things in life. I think, this is why the media as such aneffect
on their life.

Speaker 4:

Thank you Madam Moderator. I agreed with the opinion that increasing of crime rate
among school children is due peer pressure. Circle of friendscontribute to violent
behavior on a large extent. If the child spends most of his time with a group of
friends who are naughty, haughty and arrogant thenyour child too has a tendency to
develop that attitude. So it is better to avoidour children get into such unhealthy
circle of friends. Same way, the schoolatmosphere does have an impact in school
violence. The teachers, thefriends around etc does have their share of developing
arrogant behavior inchildren. Children and teenagers feel social pressure to conform
to the groupof peers with whom they socialize. This peer pressure can influence
howchildren dress, what kind of music they listen to, and what types of behaviorthey
engage in, including risky behaviors such as using drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.
Peer pressure can begin in early childhood with children trying to getother kids
toplaythe games they want. It generally increases throughchildhood and reaches its
intensity in the preteen and teen years. Peerpressure can be negative or positive.
Starting in middle school, childrenbegin to spend more time with their friends and
less time with their parentsandfamily. In children ages eleven to fourteen, it is most
common formembers of these cliques to be of the same sex. Children will spend a
lot of time with friends in their clique, interacting by going to the movies or themall,
talking on the telephone, or chatting online with instant messaging.Peer pressure
can be extremely strong and seductive. Experiments haveshown how peer pressure
can influence children to change their minds fromwhat they know for sure is
acceptable behavior to unacceptable behavior just because everyone else in their
peer group is doing it. Children cannotalways avoid negative peer pressure. It may
continue to be a fact of lifethrough childhood, and into adulthood. Peer pressure can
be found in groupsas young as age too, when children will do things simply because
other kidsare doing it or tell them to. This can effect the child's behavior, social
andemotional development, eating habits, play time, and sleeping patterns.Negative
peer pressure occurs when a child's or teen's friends or otherpeople their age try to
convince them to do something that is either harmfulto their body or is against the
law. Examples include drinking alcohol, takingdrugs, smoking cigarettes, cutting
classes, vandalizing, andstealing.

Moderator:

Ladies and gentleman, we are at the end of this forum. Thank you Madam, itwas
great ideas. Let us think on made decision on those factors thatincreased the crimes
rate among school children. As the parents, we need totake a very good care of our
children. Till then, a very good day and thankyou