You have been warned...

[EvilBastard]

Just saying, is all

[Silver_Owl]

Let's face it - we've all been there.

[6FeetOver]

Sad, really.

[eotunun]

Okay: Sometimes the lack of skill is a blessing, isn't it?
Even Freddie Krüger used sharp knifes and not a dull pair of scissors.

[EvilBastard]

Okay: Sometimes the lack of skill is a blessing, isn't it?
Even Freddie Krüger used sharp knifes and not a dull pair of scissors.

It is sadly indicative of the parlous state of education in the UK today. When I was a lad, if I'd wanted to stab my parents, the first thing I'd have done was make sure that the implement was sharp enough - after all, didn't everyone's woodwork teacher tell them that sharp tools were the best way to prevent injury?

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court the voice "showed me what it wanted me to do". "It was just an image in my head, my mother with a noose around her neck, my dad with a knife in his chest"."

So despite being shown a knife in her dad's chest, she still used a pair of scissors. What does it say about English kitchens today that there isn't a good 8" knife available to a homicidal hallucinating child? It's because people don't cook at home anymore, that's the problem - our childhood kitchens were a veritable treasure-trove of edged weapons, and we saw them used every day.
What is doubly damning is that despite being shown the implement she should use, this 15-year old was unable to follow instructions.

I dont want this to be seen as an attack on the teaching profession - the teachers I know are some of the most dedicated people out there, committed to bringing the light of knowledge into the darkest recesses of the growing mind. But I think we need to examine the education policies put in place by this and previous governments - they are clearly failing this child, and who knows how many others that we don't read about?

[weebleswobble]

Typical yoof of today, couldn't do the job properly

[eotunun]

That wasn't the only news of that kind today. Some canadian Pilot went E.T. and wanted to phone home as well. Yet didn't quite manage.
I bet that asteroid missed Mars as well..
Not the day for the evil spirits, hm?

[James Blast]

I see Beadle's been framed.

[boudicca]

Am I the only one who thinks that is just incredibly sad? It sounds like the girl is experiencing some kind of psychotic disorder, most likely schizophrenia - and showing such severe symptoms as hearing voices and having hallucinations at such an early age certainly doesn't bode well for her in later life. She'll probably spend a sad life in and out of hospital.

Having said that, it seemed to be screaming schizophrenia until I read those comments about how she "wanted them to see there was something wrong"... which makes me wonder if the "classic" schizophrenic symptoms are being feigned for some kind of attention and she doesn't just have what they rather irritaingly call "personality disorders" these days. If so I do have rather less sympathy.
But if she is genuinely psychotic to such a degree that she genuinely hears and sees these things... god, I wish people would realise how f**king terrifying and deeply unfunny conditions like these are. Both for the person with them and their families

[James Blast]

But if she is genuinely

the crux of the biscuit IMO

[boudicca]

Hmm well yes, true. It does sound a little bit odd... a schizophrenic hearing voices and seeing scary hallucinations generally doesn't give a damn about whether they're getting the attention from others they need or not. Also, if she is that severely psychotic, she would have very little insight - if any - so would not realise that the things she was seeing/hearing were not reality. They would seem as real as herself, her parents or anything else.

OK then, perhaps not what it first appears...

[EvilBastard]

I would agree, conditions of this nature are terrifying for both the sufferer and the people in their environment. If she is truly suffering from schizophrenia or something similar then she deserves sympathy, care, and understanding.

On the other flipper, I was reminded of an old stand-up routine (around the time that the Austin Maestro was released, ushering in a wave of "Talkie-" items) that went something like this:

"You know, I have a super-modern lifestyle. Yep, all my gadgets communicate with me. Why, just this morning my car told me that I needed an oil change, the answering machine told me I had messages, and my toaster told me to kill the postman."

Perhaps I was trying to avoid the pathos of the young lady's apparent condition by turning it into an attack on the educational system, which might prompt discussion of mental illness without the kind of super-worthy hand-wringing Esther Rantzenisms that usually go along with it (I'm not accusing anyone of doing this, only trying to analyse my own response to the news piece).

Didn't want to come off as shallow, you know - it's bad enough when people over here hear that when we were kids "Joey!" was a favoured insult in the playground. Honestly, the yoof of 1982...

[James Blast]

a bit "Bleeding Heart Liberal" that EB, personally I think we should cut their goolies off