Dear editor,

I am writing to express my views on the playground vandalism near my housing estate. The housing estate where I live in in the New Territories has many excellent facilities. While most people treat them properly, there are some people destroy all these valuable public resources. The playground equipment is heavily damaged. Some facilities are burned and broken. The graffiti are completely covered all over the place. Some of the graffiti even includes bad language. It’s adversely influence the children safety and our precious public resources.

The reason of this vandalism is mainly related to the people who are out of boredom and the shortage of security. Nowadays, most teenagers like to spend their time through hanging out with friends. When they have nothing to play or any recreational activities, the playground may be targeted as an amusement for spending their time. Due to teenagers are now in the process of building self-worth and self-esteem, they will try to do something over in order to get the peer recognition. For instant, the teenagers pretend to be a leader through destroying the facilities. In these recent years, these selfish and irresponsible behaviors under the fabricating, exaggerating from social media, started becoming rationalized. That’s why the playground vandalism happens. Secondly, it is because of the shortage of security guards. If there is security guard checking the playground regularly, to deter any vandalism promptly, this phenomenon will not happen.

To solve the problem, establishing a youth centre and forming a management committee are the best ways to solve the problem. Since Teenagers are having more free time, their needs of recreational activity are relatively elevated. Therefore, if there’s any activity or place to let them spend their free time, they will naturally lose interest in the destruction of the park, so as to protect the playground’s facilities and relieve the serious vandalism efficaciously. Establishing a youth centre is the best way to let the teenagers getting the community involved and spends their free time. In the youth centre, it will be provided some sporting equipment, chess game for them to play. Also, the youth centre will organize some activities for teenagers to enrich their life and help them to build up self-esteem, responsibility and self-worth. Let them can get into the community involved in the future easily.

Second, it’s about the security. Due to the shortage of security guard, the teenagers can go to destroy the park whenever they want. Nobody cares about it and looks after the place. It’s conceivable that the vandalism will continuously happen if there isn’t any security guard. In contrast, if there is a management committee to supervise the playground, patrol it regularly, teenagers will behave more appropriate if they know that someone is watching them, so as to protect our facilities.

The situation now needs urgent attention! The existing playground is broken and dangerous for young children to play in. It’s not just vandalism, is a danger bomb in the society! If the problem cannot be solved promptly, it will become a vicious cycle, fully threaten our children safety and our daily life. Therefore, I earnestly urge the relevant departments to face and solve this problem immediately, so as to protect our children and facilities.

Yours faithfully,

Chris Wong

    高二:黄树辉