Parents fear teen school thefts

Almost one-third of Netanya's parents do not allow their junior high school children to go to school with mobile telephones, music players, or money.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
Almost one-third of Netanya's parents do not allow their junior high school children to go to school with mobile telephones, music players, money or even wrist-watches for fear of their being robbed, usually by menacing older youths, according to a survey conducted by www.local.co.il. And it seems that among those who have fallen prey to thieves, most do not tell their parents or any authority figure, at least not initially. According to the report, three youths were arrested in Netanya last week on suspicion of having robbed a number of teenagers of their mobile telephones or money after threatening them with knives. Following the arrests, the news site conducted a survey and found that 31 percent of Netanya's parents do not allow their middle-schoolers to go to school with such objects. Several parents said they discovered that their children had been robbed only after they became suspicious as to how the youngster could "lose" a cellphone for the second time in one month. The report said that one father related that he had gone to confront the youths who had robbed his son, and that they had simply laughed in his face. "Even in my day there were youths who would hit and threaten others, but this is just extortion," the father said. A spokeswoman for the Central Parents' Committee said that the robbery phenomenon existed in "every school in Netanya" and that the victims were usually too frightened to speak out. She said every school should create a system that would enable victims to come forward, and that would not necessarily punish the thieves, because most of them were "in crisis," but would provide a system of therapy for them.