Birmingham

TMonday 28th December 2009 www.birminghamtoday.co.uk 45p

TEENS ANGERED OVER FALSE ACCUSATIONS

A NUMBER OF TEENS reaching between many communities amongst Birmingham have recently been outraged by false al-legations concerning a number of crimes. Only a couple were seen to be major offences –a injustice theft on a local store, and dangerous driving- but the victims of the crimes were very minor, making the causalities thankfully even less.The number of teens, bought together by the social network Face-book, discussed how insulted they were at being declared wrongly as the cause of the crimes. Each of them agreed with one another, that they were disappointed to come to the conclusion of how little Teenagers morals are thought of in the Midlands.

The various teenagers, aging between fif-teen and nineteen were offended to realise how many more people of their age group were being wrongly accused throughout the different areas of Birmingham itself. It is currently unknown if the different crimes are all related to one major ‘gang’ or whether they are simple coincidences. Although the teenagers were insulted by the actions that have taken place, it has encouraged them to take on a scheme of their own, to not only clear their own names, but to promote the teenage image, and dismiss any stereotypical views cre-ated by the media itself.They have started a group and associa-tion to try and uplift the media’s image of teenagers to be troublesome and dis-respectful, to a more encouraging one. They believe that for too long teenagers have been seen as the cause of problems in most public places, and are positive that there are many within the same age group as themselves that will agree they have had more than their fair share of prejudice attitudes aimed at them because of their appearance. TURN TO PAGE 2

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In the early hours of yesterday morning, un-known to the Ganley family; their boiler was leaking posioness Carbon Monoxide gas. The family had continued their day-to-day routine, unaware of the dangerous fumes leaking in their home, and counting down their family mutt’s behaviour as playful.

When the family settled down for the night, and getting ready for the day ahead, they had noticed that Timber, a husky and alsatian mix, was acting even stranger. Whining as if in pain, and detering the occupents of the home away from the family bathroom in a surge of protec-tiveness. Thinking it was a issue of the canine

being indoors for the day, Stuart, 33 took him out for his evening walk. Any feelings of uneasiness by the animals reluctance to leave the home without it’s other two occupents; Hayley, 29, and Nathaniel; 4, were pushed away as Timber became more lively and inde-pendant when away from the home. Dismissing any urgent thoughts to rush him to the Vets. After finally shutting the animal in the kitchen in the ealry hours of the morning, they retired to sleep, un-aware of the fact that their canine could open the door. Luckily Timber was able to jostle the door open, rouse the sleeping family and concern them enough by his behaviour to leave the house. Nathaniel then gained a cough, and after some information from their local Vet, they discovered the leak of the gas, one big enough that a spark could have devestated them first.

“Although we were taken aback by Timber’s behaviour, we didn’t expect the result we got back, and we owe him our lives...”

Story by Ryan Logan

[Continued from cover title] ...One of the group members Aisha Danton spoke up to re-late to us of a personal experience that is probably common throughout many teens; ‘Whenever I go into a shop, alone or with a few of my mates, the Security guard seems insistent on watching our every move, and probably making sure we’re not sneaking anything into our pockets. But why are we believed to be more likely to steal some-thing than an adult is?’ She is positive that many others have shared the feeling, and had the same actions happen to them and their friendsThe group have recently become more well known, and are now being acknowledged throughout the Midlands, inspiring more teens to do more towards promoting their sensible image. The group originally started by a small number of teens meeting at a local youth club, and began discussing their irritation and offence at being judged harsh-ly because of their personal image, or their age. They related stories, and soon they had more teens speaking out to them express-ing their feelings. The amount of the teens in joint agreement slowly grew, adding a few more people, but when they all agreed to create a group on Facebook dedicated to their , they found the amount of teens to be far higher.

Another main member of the group Nata-sha Layton expressed that they understand the social issues that may contradict their opinions; ‘We understand that there are many news reports of teenagers doing petty thefts. Along with a few major crimes here and there, but when you look on the news, how many people are Adults? We agree quite a big number. We’re not trying to shift the balance of the blame for crimes onto another age group. But rather we just want to promote the teenage image as something more than a thief or something alike. We believe there are too many good teenagers whom are being wrongly accused simply because of how they look or their age group. All we want to do is discourage this from happening more often.’Undoubtedly this group of teenagers have inspired many more of the same age group, and will continue to do the same not only today but in the far future. And will hope-fully banish the media-fused opinion of a teenager.

Story by Lucy Dixon

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