Are you Surprised?

Are you surprised?

If you search ‘Granville Boys Stabbing’ in the internet, you’ll find countless websites and supposedly video footage of the attack made on a student on school grounds. The Granville Boy’s stabbing incident of 2011 that shocked all of Sydney remains as one of the most violent attacks amongst students in Australia. It is believed that one student was stabbed five times in the stomach when an argument broke out amongst three pupils, the two attackers fleeing the site immediately.

As many of us Sydneysiders know, the Western Sydney suburbs including Granville, is an area densely populated with people from the Middle-East like Lebanon, Pakistan, Turkey and many others. It could be due to the negative connotations portrayed by the media surrounding these people, the suburb of Granville has always been deemed as ‘scary’ or ‘unsafe’ if not from that particular cultural group. However what caught my eye the most was the comments that were made by the subscribers of the newspaper and every other person who voiced their opinions.

Over half the thirty responses that were made in regards to the stabbing made comments that they weren’t surprised this incident had happened in Granville and by students from that particular schools. For example, “I didn’t have to read far past ‘Granville Boy’s High’ to get the picture” or sarcastic comments like “No not Granville!” and even comments like “typical Granville”. It made me wonder, if this had unfolded within the schools of Northern Sydney would there have been a totally different attitude towards it? Why is it that because it happened in Granville, people have so many harsh things to say towards the school and the people who live in the area? As a result of people making those comments, it seems that they were only making the situation worse and just created a more negative image towards the suburb.

This leads to the issue of parents and their decision on where to send their children. When searching up Granville Boys High School in the ‘myschool’ website, it shows that less than 60 students had formally completed their high school education. Interestingly, Vaughn and Witko states that students  “attending a charter school produces higher graduation rates and higher college attendance rates. Cullen, Jacob, and Levitt (2005, p. 729) find that there is no consistent difference between students from families that haveactively chosen a school and those that attended the assigned regular public school in terms of dropping out of school, but students attending career academies were significantly less likely to drop out.” This also can be another reason for the large amount of students who don’t finish with a completed Higher School Certificate  not only at Granville Boys High School but also other schools that deal with the same problem.

We can’t help but agree that based on the dense population of Middle-Eastern people dominating this specific area of Sydney, it is unfortunate to see that the students and their culture are also being criticised and mocked. It is important that we all learn to stop stereotyping based on culture and what society thinks is right and wrong.

Refrence:

Vaughn, M. and Witko, C. 2013. Does the amount of school choice matter for student engagement?. Social Science Journal, 50 (1), p. 1. [Accessed: 28 Oct 2013].

Morri ,D & Danks, K, Accessed:  20/10/2013, retrieved from : http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/schoolboy-stabbed-in-stomach-at-granville-boys-high/story-e6freuy9-1226010576134,