There was something odd about the self-service checkout, but it wasn’t my usual problem of having to be rescued by an assistant.
Normally there’s a glitch of some sort at the machine, and an infernal red light flashing above my head. I can’t remember the last time I got through these supposedly “faster” checkouts without a snag of some kind. But here was something new to digest at the Tesco store I was visiting in Aberdeen.
I didn’t notice at first, as I was preoccupied with squinting at a use-by date on a pack of “dinky pork pies”. Would they cut the mustard with my wife, who had sent an SOS from her hospital bed? In her wretched, morphine-soaked, post-operative state, she couldn’t stomach the corned beef hash which arrived at her bedside for lunch.
There was something peculiar about the two teenage assistants overseeing shoppers’ antics at the self-serve tills. At last, it dawned on me – they were wearing body cams attached to special belts around their bodies. When on earth did that come in?
It’s the first time I’d seen body cameras on the chests of supermarket staff but, for all I know, maybe you’re already familiar with it. You know – the same sort of high-tech gear police officers wear on their uniforms to record mayhem in front of them, to be used in court at some later date, if necessary.
I have to say, I was taken aback; stunned might be more accurate.
I’m used to seeing my mug staring back from a small screen at some of these tills, as a fixed camera watches me checking out. But, body cams on staff, I ask you? They’ll be carrying cuffs and truncheons next.
Maybe not a bad idea, I thought, especially after reading that assaults on UK shop staff were going through the roof. And, just days later, The P&J reported a shocking assault on a female shop worker by customers in Aberdeen – not for the first time, but the second occasion in a matter of weeks. The alleged attackers were reportedly girls of school age.
Shouldn’t we be Getting It Right For Every Teacher too?
“It’s OK, I’m not actually filming you right now,” said the young male assistant reassuringly, as his female sidekick looked on. He’d clocked my suspicious sideways glances.
I got the impression the cameras were only switched on when troublemaking customers got out of hand. These kids looked like students working part-time; why should they have to put up with aggressive lowlifes?
I wondered if there was a link with another set of shocking statistics, about high numbers of teachers in Aberdeen schools being assaulted by pupils, or witnessing violence on a daily basis around classes. Are culprits in school capable of abusing shop staff, too?
Respect has supposedly vanished in school these days; pupil power has grown, teachers are scared to do anything.
Some blame the Scottish Government’s drive to implement GIRFEC (Getting It Right For Every Child) to make child equality the be-all and end-all. I couldn’t find a GIRFET anywhere (Getting It Right For Every Teacher).
We applaud giving children every chance – even bad ones. But has the pendulum swung too far in the wrong direction?
I recall receiving child-counselling training, and being cautioned not to put children on a pedestal. In other words, young people must be challenged robustly, and left in no doubt about the punishments for crossing clearly-defined boundaries.
I overheard someone describing how they visited a north-east secondary school recently to support an event. They were appalled by the disrespect of teenage pupils and staff who failed to control them.
Scottish Government is dodging responsibility
We look to our leaders for strong, decisive action. Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth proved less than impressive when she was challenged about “lawless” schools in Aberdeen, but appeared to duck the issue.
In a cringeworthy response, she was more concerned about the big picture in Scotland than a mere “snapshot” of misery in Aberdeen. She left it to the city council to sort out, which was a depressing prospect.
As education boss, Gilruth should have grasped the crisis by the scruff of the neck. But maybe she didn’t want to step on the toes of her SNP colleagues on the council.
Bold decision by Jenny Gilruth to go on TV to discuss a report, and then admit that you haven’t read it. #BBCSundayShow pic.twitter.com/9Cc7LOhn2i
— Sam Taylor (@staylorish) February 25, 2024
No amount of bluster from a minister about not “demonising” the majority of well-behaved children can hide the reality.
As a comparison, we are not worried about good police officers, for example, but it’s the bad apples in their ranks we must root out. On that basis, we might accept that a lot of children are reasonably well behaved in school, but others are bad enough to spoil it for everyone.
An inbuilt alarm system for spotting trouble lurking in seemingly everyday minutiae is the sign of a good leader. The trouble with highfalutin folk like government ministers is that the higher they fly, the less they see on the ground.
David Knight is the long-serving former deputy editor of The Press and Journal
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