CP head on bus shaming

Late last month, Coleridge & Parry principal Vincent Fergusson called in the media, including television, at the St Peter secondary school to send a national message about ill-discipline and deviance.
There seven students – four boys and three girls aged 14 to 17 years – were made to scrub the ceiling, seats and sides of a Transport Board bus they had vandalized a couple of weeks earlier.Since that time, while he has received plenty of praise for his actions, a few commentators have questioned whether he went far enough in “punishing” the children.
In the Big Interview tomorrow, he speaks with SUNDAY?SUN Editor Bryan Walker in further defence of his actions, examines the reasons behind some students’ deviant behaviour, and discusses the challenges schools are facing with today’s generation of children and their parents.