Low expectations for small town kids

The head girl of a Kaikohe college says a local approach is needed to tackle destructive youth behaviour in her home town.

On Friday night, half a dozen children walked into a liquor store and stole boxes of beer. Later, a group of youngsters were captured on CCTV, hurling rocks and trying to kick in the glass doors of the Mobil service station.

Northland College head girl Aroha Lawrence said she knew some of the young people involved at the weekend.

Some came from good homes while others came from broken homes, but they were united in that they had all grown up in Kaikohe and had to deal with any stigma that came with that.

“When you’re from Kaikohe people don’t expect much of you, so you don’t have really big expectations for yourself,” Miss Lawrence said.

“People just think you’re another Maori statistic that’s just going to go on the dole.”

It did not help that there was not much to do in the town, she said.

However, the same things happened in other towns and cities too and it was important to remember there were a lot of good young people in Kaikohe too, Lawrence said. - RNZ