Sullen teenagers are not pleasant. They exude rebellion, lock themselves in their rooms and give little acknowledgement of your presence. Efforts to break the ice are passed off with a stare. Think war zones. That was my home environment a few weeks back. I had done nothing to deserve such treatment. Using my best diplomatic skills one evening, I tested the handle on my son's door; he had left it unlocked and I barged in. He was sitting on his bed looking into blankness.
The conversation that ensued was not what I had bargained for. I had expected to be told of love spurned or bad exam results. Instead, I heard about blackmail, extortion, smuggling and drugs.
My son is 15. He is generally polite, truthful and caring. To the best of my knowledge, he does not engage in nefarious activities. Yet here he was unburdening his troubled mind by telling me about friends or fellow students who had been expelled from school for serious crimes.
There was the boy who had been chatting on a webcam with a fellow female student. He had asked her to take off her clothes for him. Not realising he was videoing the conversation, she did - and the next day at school she was asked to pay HK$2,000 or face having images of her nakedness passed around. Teachers were informed and the youth was shown the door. He may or may not have been aware of American schoolgirl Jesse Logan, who killed herself in July last year after her former boyfriend texted nude pictures of her to other students at their Ohio high school.
Another 16-year-old boy was expelled for selling drugs. He was known among students as a supplier. Teachers went through his backpack and found marijuana, muscle-building steroids and assorted other drugs. Presumably, if there is a supplier, there are also customers; I was not told if action had been taken against other students.
A prank earned a third boy expulsion. He had smuggled a student from another school past security by getting a school uniform for him. Such stunts are usually passed off with a reprimand, but the youth had a record of trouble-making.
I cannot relate such tales from my high school days three decades ago. There was some cigarette-smoking, bullying and whispered stories of sex. One student got expelled for striking a teacher. I knew little of what happened in other classes.