General Chat

Only last week on tv was interviewed our first Youth Commissioner, aged 17, looking very respectable and speaking well now earning a salary of £15,000.

In todays MonS her twitters were revealed and the language I can only guess at as a lot of if was blacked out. However, she appears to getting as drunk as she can one of her prioities and sex as another.

Calls for her to be sacked - however the Police Commissioner who employed her - refuses to and stated that she wanted a 'typical' teenager.

There may be many like her but I feel that there are more who are not.

What do you think?

I reckon she is very much in the minority

She has since resigned and apologised.

Ours have passed the teenage years, but I suspect that at least one would have been like her, (edit - bad language aside) and the other's would have liked the opportunity.

We may think we know what our teenagers are up to, but I'm guessing that most have told us what we want to hear on a least a couple of occassions!

How nasty of the Mail - but not surprising. Poor kid.

I think the idea of the Youth Commissioner is a good idea and could help to breakdown some of the barriers between the authorities and young people. However they need to be a sort of role model and I am afraid that from what I have read on various media sites, this young lady does not fit the bill :-|

I might have some respect for the overpaid Police Commissioner if she was prepared to admit making a mistake.
She is happy to be there to criticise and monitor the police's failings though, the old coppers dictate “do as I say not as I do”.

The young lady is not a bad person just doing what a lot of kids do, but perhaps not an ideal role model for teenagers.

Mayfield.

DEt - I did not know that but it is possibly the only answer.
Perhaps she will learn a lesson from that. It is a shame that an opportunity has gone to waste.

She's just been on the Radio headlines, in tears.

She stated that the quotes were taken out of context, and from quite a while ago. She said that she wasn't homophobic, or racist.
The Police Commisoner is reported to have said that she hopes that this incident will not effect her (the girl's) life.

Teenagers tend not to think of repercussions of using social media sites, and they do often use words describing their friends which can or could be taken as insults even if that is not what was meant!

EDIT - not sure now if I imagined that she had resigned, or if I wasn't listening to it properly earlier today

I saw the interview with her on TV and have to say I was very impressed with her maturity and ability to speak like she did .I know nothing about the MonS ,twitters etc.
Ok she has been partying or whatever,but that is what Teenagers do.The fact she is Youth Commissioner I think is beside the point.She will party ,she will have fun ,but could still be a darned good Youth Commissioner.I get so angry with papers and people who are too quick to put the mockers on someone.Shame on them
Give the girl a chance I say.

TheMail really is a piece of ****, isn't it?

Bad enough when they try to dig up dirt on adults but to pick on a kid is plain awful.

I didn't see any interviews previously to this latest news and knew nothing of Youth commissioners but seeing her on tv last evening, I was unimpressed and felt there must be far better teenagers qualified to do the job than she is.

Just wouldn't trust her to not repeat her errors the next time she drinks too much booze. She is no role model and I don't think she is right for the position.

Lizx

I was just about to comment Liz but I think you have said it all for me. I am glad she is not employed for my area. I'm pretty sure we could find someone more appropriate to fit the bill. Not all teenagers who use the social networking sites use that sort of language.

Vera

The Mail dug up stuff she posted when she was aged 14 - 16 I cannot believe that people here think that's ok.

Also, as someone who works with teenagers, I can assure you that the language she used on Twitter is used by most teenagers on that site. Although not so many use it in real life.

There is a large element of bravado in what teenagers post on social networking sites - a lot of it is fiction. Most reasonable adults realise this.

Not journalists at the Mail, though, who take pleasure in bullying a teenager brave enough to try to help society.

Groundbreaking journalism - making a 17 year old cry on national TV. Wow!

Don't have a problem with her being *real* but I have a big problem with the waste of £15,000 being paid out for her to have that post in the first place.

It makes me laugh nowadays that people, not just this teenager, are given such high profile job titles. Years ago she would have been employed as some junior and she would have been befriended by someone in a department who wanted some free information.

In the 1960's the local bobby used to call at my flat, knowing that there were lots of young people there and he was simply keeping his ear to the ground. He even called in at my 21st party and mingled, in uniform. The only slip up he made was when I moved to another address,after a few visits he asked where my flat mates were. When I said I lived alone I never saw his heels for dust again..........j.

she's only 17 now and these comments were tweets were allegedly between 14 and 16, so last year then - not that long ago - to me she seemed totally inappropriate for the job and the person who appointed her will not back down cos she doesn't want egg on her face - before you appoint someone to a job like that you have to investigate thair background fully

We punish bad behaviour but rarely reward good behaviour. And this youngster shouldn't have to pretend to be what she is not.

Young & innocent, she was pitted against the dark harsh world armed only with optimism & shielded by naivety.

On Saturday night we went to the 18th birthday party of OH's Godson.

Most of the crowd were under 21. 8 of us "oldies"

Everyone had a great time.

Nobody got drunk (no silly drinking games either), nobody used foul language.

These "kids" have all finished high school, some are going to uni, some have their first job.

Kinda scary........ they're a lot more mature and confident than I was at 18.

:-D

Whenever she posted, I still don't think she looks or sounds right for the job.


I wonder how many people applied for the job, surely there must have been someone better suited.

Lizx

It has just been announced that she has now resigned.