A Word of Caution

There is no doubt that the attack by the Korean student on his teacher in Auckland yesterday, is simply unacceptable. Nor would anyone condone such behaviour.

However, watching TV1 news this evening and it's comments by other students that the teacher may not have been the paragon that he was first reported to be on Tuesday night reminded me that sometimes we are ready to accept anything thats dished in front of us by the media - even when the information is incomplete.

It's like the Civic Child Abuse case in Christchurch, where Peter Ellis' supporters maintain his innocence and questions still lurk, appearing to cast doubt on the issue. Do the public have all the information? Enough to have an opinion ourselves?

The difference between the two cases is that one as opposed to the other has been through the court system and we have to accept the courts decision. The alternative is chaos.

However the question that remains for us mere plebs is "do we have all the information?" and is it enough to form opinions? In the case of the Korean boy there maybe mitigating circumstances we don't know.