Boys will just be boys and stab each other at school

The Herald reports:

It was naive to suggest there wasn’t a problem in an area where two school-related stabbings occurred yesterday, a child psychologist has said, following a comment from the electorate’s MP that “boys will be boys”.

Mangere MP Su’a William Sio down-played any problem in the area when he appeared on TVNZ’s Breakfast show this morning, saying “boys will be boys”.

“I think it frightens anybody when you hear of young children in a situation where allegedly there is a weapon being used, but that’s symptomatic of a community that has a high proportion of young people in it.

“Whenever you’ve got young people, you’re going to get this kind of situation from time to time, although most of us do not accept that the allegations of weapons would be part of a schoolboy fight.”

“I would just say to those boys; ‘grow up’,” Mr Sio said.

Boys will just be boys. My God. The bigotry of soft expectations again. The issue isn’t that the boys need to grow up. It’s that they have access to weapons, and have a moral compass that thinks it is acceptable to threaten and use weapons and stab people.

Stuff further reports:

Labour MP Su’a William Sio admits he could have chosen his words more carefully when he said “boys are gonna be boys,” but insists he wasn’t trying to downplay a two schoolyard stabbings in South Auckland. He also has a warning for outsiders – “don’t judge us”.

I don’t judge the community, but I do judge the MP who downplays the seriousness of it.