Trapped on a train

[Journeyman]

Sorry, are you saying there’s a correlation between letting your daughter have a nose piercing and being a bad parent?

It's about 99.9999999% likely to be a removable fake anyway, as reputable piercing salons won't do that piercing on a child that young, even with parental permission. And yeah, assuming that pierced = delinquent is shockingly ignorant anyway. Have you seen how many young people have piercings now? It's getting to the point where you're unusual if you don't.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The problem is that plenty of people will have seen the initial coverage and thought, “Those poor little girls. Wasn’t ScotRail/the railway terrible”. But they never get to see a more accurate version of what happened, which might make them revise their opinions, even under normal circumstances when the Scottish media isn’t full of the Salmond v. Sturgeon civil war.

It's like the old saying: A lie can be halfway around the world before the truth has got its shoes on...

 

[GlitterUnicorn]

You call for a police officer to take custody of them, ascertain their circumstances and ensure they're returned safely home, in the mean time they can be watched over by a suitable person, station manager, train guard etc. It's unlikely any formal proceedings will be taken against children but words of advice might be given to them/their parents or guardians particularly if they're persistent offenders.

Refusing kids who are blatantly kids travel is a big no-no (providing they're not for example in a gang smashing up the place in which case you're within your rights to refuse and call the police out to them instead), but there is a safeguarding requirement to make sure they're not in trouble, runaways etc.

I suppose it'd be possible that a couple of kids could have explained their situation, and having been told that the police would have to be informed, were so scared that they subsequently hid from all the railway staff they encountered and wouldn't ask for help. With the issues that line has been having with antisocial behaviour, any kids staff encountered without tickets would probably be assumed to be up to no good, so there's a chance they'd maybe be less helpful than they might otherwise be.

If I had to guess I'd say that this was the most likely situation. Scared kids do stupid stuff, especially if they feel like they're going to get in trouble.

 

[scotraildriver]

Indeed. But it doesn't excuse the mother running to multiple media outlets, publicly slating Scotrail staff without being in possession of the facts. As it transpires staff did everything right but were vilified by the press.

 

[GlitterUnicorn]

Indeed. But it doesn't excuse the mother running to multiple media outlets, publicly slating Scotrail staff without being in possession of the facts. As it transpires staff did everything right but were vilified by the press.

Maybe not, but parents panic when they lose their kids, a lot. Tends to lead to people saying or doing things that they otherwise wouldn't.

File it under **** happens?

 

[Chriso]

One parent appears responsible the other doesn’t

 

[14xxDave]

Maybe not, but parents panic when they lose their kids, a lot. Tends to lead to people saying or doing things that they otherwise wouldn't.

File it under **** happens?

Personally I would file it under a bad way to interact with the world. It's interesting the difference between the two sets of parents outlook on this situation.

 

[Pete_uk]

and the mother can sort out the spankings.

Gosh! Are you advocating child abuse!

Todays headlines....tomorrows chip wrappers

Or loo roll

 

[Bletchleyite]

Gosh! Are you advocating child abuse!

I suspect he was speaking figuratively, meaning punishments, which are certainly due! Groundings perhaps would be fitting, i.e. "if you can't behave properly when out alone, you're not going out alone for a while".

 

[GlitterUnicorn]

I suspect he was speaking figuratively, meaning punishments, which are certainly due! Groundings perhaps would be fitting, i.e. "if you can't behave properly when out alone, you're not going out alone for a while".

You're quick to judge,

A couple of quite young kids went on the trains for fun, and ended up getting themselves stuck on a train overnight. The parents are probably happy enough to have their kids back, and the kids have probably been badly scared by being trapped in a train all night away from home. It's the sort of situation kids get themselves into.

 

[Bletchleyite]

You're quick to judge,

A couple of quite young kids went on the trains for fun, and ended up getting themselves stuck on a train overnight. The parents are probably happy enough to have their kids back, and the kids have probably been badly scared by being trapped in a train all night away from home. It's the sort of situation kids get themselves into.

There was clearly a wilful element. It is not easy to get stuck on a train overnight by accident. The point needs to be made that this is not something you do. So to me a grounding, length determined by how much they appeared to regret it, would seem proportionate.

 

[scotraildriver]

Given that it has now been proven via CCTV that they had been riding around on trains since around 2pm, without a ticket, with 2 mobiles but no charge or chargers, left Glasgow City centre at 21. 57 and arrived at Helensburgh to then deliberately hide in various places to avoid the driver, station staff and then a cleaner, I think deserves some punishment. Hopefully the mother thinks twice in future before running to the media to presumably be paid for a story slating staff and claiming neglet by railway employees which proved to be totally false as her darling daughter had clearly lied every step of the way.

 

[Chriso]

I think this shows just what a problem ticketless travel is currently and how difficult it will be to get people to pay again after a year of free travel in certain areas.

 

[Journeyman]

Given that it has now been proven via CCTV that they had been riding around on trains since around 2pm, without a ticket, with 2 mobiles but no charge or chargers, left Glasgow City centre at 21. 57 and arrived at Helensburgh to then deliberately hide in various places to avoid the driver, station staff and then a cleaner, I think deserves some punishment. Hopefully the mother thinks twice in future before running to the media to presumably be paid for a story slating staff and claiming neglet by railway employees which proved to be totally false as her darling daughter had clearly lied every step of the way.

It highlights the fact that there's a huge amount of very bored kids around at the moment, and that in their desperation for entertainment, they're doing stupid things that often have serious consequences. I'm not defending it, but it's hardly surprising, and it shows that lockdown measures have often been too extreme and have let young people down badly. I've seen a lot of kids making trouble in my area because everything they'd normally channel their energy into is off-limits right now.

 

[skyhigh]

I think this shows just what a problem ticketless travel is currently and how difficult it will be to get people to pay again after a year of free travel in certain areas.

It does? Didn't you post exactly the same comment in the Scotrail guard dispute thread?

 

[scotraildriver]

It highlights the fact that there's a huge amount of very bored kids around at the moment, and that in their desperation for entertainment, they're doing stupid things that often have serious consequences. I'm not defending it, but it's hardly surprising, and it shows that lockdown measures have often been too extreme and have let young people down badly. I've seen a lot of kids making trouble in my area because everything they'd normally channel their energy into is off-limits right now.

My 3 kids are not doing any stupid things. Neither are any of their friends. More screen time than I'd like but I know where they at all times. It's called parent responsibility. Not knowing where a 12 year old girl is for 11 hours but then blaming everyone else for not looking after them is a serious lapse.

 

[Deafdoggie]

Indeed. I know where my children are and what they're doing.

 

[Journeyman]

My 3 kids are not doing any stupid things. Neither are any of their friends. More screen time than I'd like but I know where they at all times. It's called parent responsibility. Not knowing where a 12 year old girl is for 11 hours but then blaming everyone else for not looking after them is a serious lapse.

I'm not defending it or attempting to paint everyone with the same brush. I'm just saying that lockdown has led to an increase in antisocial behaviour.

 

[Bletchleyite]

My 3 kids are not doing any stupid things. Neither are any of their friends. More screen time than I'd like but I know where they at all times. It's called parent responsibility. Not knowing where a 12 year old girl is for 11 hours but then blaming everyone else for not looking after them is a serious lapse.

I thought the same earlier when I saw a group of about 10 teenagers stood around in the park, not 2m apart, right in the middle of the path, no doubt spreading COVID around to all comers. I've long taken the view that parents should take some level of legal responsibility for their childrens' actions (probably up to age 16), that might concentrate minds a little.

 

[43096]

no doubt spreading COVID around to all comers

"No doubt", eh? I take it you asked them to do a COVID test there and then so that there was "no doubt".

 

[SignallerJohn]

I thought the same earlier when I saw a group of about 10 teenagers stood around in the park, not 2m apart, right in the middle of the path, no doubt spreading COVID around to all comers. I've long taken the view that parents should take some level of legal responsibility for their childrens' actions (probably up to age 16), that might concentrate minds a little.

As much as I’m against people breaking restrictions etc. lots of research has suggested that the chance of catching it outside is marginal. This isn’t the thread for this, but I do wonder what’s the difference between them being in the park with their friends VS being at school with their friends?

As for these young girls, they obviously got found out, and lied as a child might have done. I’d much rather them doing something this silly than being on a level crossing etc

 

[Bletchleyite]

As much as I’m against people breaking restrictions etc. lots of research has suggested that the chance of catching it outside is marginal. This isn’t the thread for this, but I do wonder what’s the difference between them being in the park with their friends VS being at school with their friends?

That's a fair point though they shouldn't have been blocking the path in that way anyway, COVID or no. But anyway it was just an example of parents not exercising the proper control of their children. In the same park you get them smoking, drinking etc, and that is exactly the same.

As for these young girls, they obviously got found out, and lied as a child might have done. I’d much rather them doing something this silly than being on a level crossing etc

I'd rather they didn't do either; that's a bit like saying (more extreme example) you'd rather a kid thumped someone than knifed them - er, yes, of course you would, but they shouldn't do either of those things. I would make them all write their own letter of apology to the BTP and TOC (on paper, with a pen, so not just Googling something and copy-pasting it), and ground them for two weeks, if they were mine.

I've no problem with kids riding round on trains for fun, I used to do it, but it should be done in the proper way with a ticket etc.

 

[Chriso]

I think this shows just what a problem ticketless travel is currently and how difficult it will be to get people to pay again after a year of free travel in certain areas.

Yes I stupidly posted my original post in there by mistake