How sick do you have to be to steal from children? How depraved are you if you continue to prey on children and the institutions that help shape them? Every so often, there are stories in the news about burglars stealing from primary and basic schools things the school acquired to help the little ones.

Computers, food and drink are just some of the things that are often stolen from schools that leave them scrambling for ways to continue to provide for the children who attend them. You know I could understand if the burglars do it once, but all the time? Come on now people what kind of animal are you if you will take food out of the mouth of babes and deprive their eager minds of valuable learning?

don't really care

How do you live with yourself if you stuff yourself with food stolen from a basic school canteen knowing that come the next day some three or four-year-old child could go hungry because of your actions? You steal a fridge, you steal computers, it's almost as if you don't really care whether these children learn anything or not. It's almost as if you want them to become you. "I didn't get (or make use of) an education, so now all children must suffer the same fate." Is this the way you justify your actions?

And those who know of the actions of these depraved people and keep your mouths shut - by telling what you know, you are not an informer you are giving our children a chance at a better future. If you don't you are as bad, even worse than the actual perpetrators.

It breaks my heart when you see the teachers imploring the perpetrators to return the stolen goods for the sake of the kids. It breaks my heart when you see their little faces, many of them not even aware of the implications.

peaceful resolutions

I have never been able to wrap my mind around why people do the things like this. I mean, seriously, it's bad enough that people steal but if they must, you would think that certain people would be off-limits. They say you can tell a lot about how a country by the way it treats its elderly and its young. What do these incidents say about us here in Jamaica?

You know as I have matured, I have become more of an advocate for peaceful resolutions but there are times when I feel like there are specific instances when cruel and inhumane punishment can be justified. Like these people now, who steal from struggling basic and primary schools, when you catch them (or since this is Jamaica, if you catch them), why should they not be punished by public flogging of the manner we saw in Mel Gibson's Passion of Christ? You know whipped until piece of the flesh is ripped out.

It really bothers me when these things happen. It's like if they don't care what they're doing to our kids, why should we care what happens to them if they are caught.

There are some who will argue that such levels of punishment doesn't make us any better than the criminals themselves. To that I say, since we are already at this level of depravity why don't we just make the most of it and take out the most depraved among us. Maybe then we will start to find our way back to some level of sanity.

Send comments to lfalevy@gmail.com

'You steal a fridge, you steal computers, it's almost as if you don't really care whether these children learn anything or not. It's almost as if you want them to become you.'