LOOK how far we've slid.
Last week we heard of how violence is infiltrating Tasmanian schools - more than 7600 suspensions and 70 weapons- related incidents.
The week before, we heard of the stabbing death of a 12-year-old boy at his Brisbane school.
It was enough to send chills down the collective spine of the Australian community.
This is something that happens in America, not here, we were thinking.
Not any more.
Of the comments given on the issue of violence in Tasmanian schools, a word jumped from the page.
The student perpetrators, those weapon-wielding youths, were labelled by the Australian Education Union as "hazards".
The advice was to do workplace risk assessments on them.
Pffft!
Like we're talking about the ergonomics of a workstation or a faulty power point here.
Granted - the safety of students within a school is paramount.
But what of the "hazard"?
The young hazard, whatever their crime, has a life and future that needs considering, being duly mindful of their past.
Labelling is good for Tupperware and stationery cupboards, but when you label a child a hazard, what restrictions does that place on their potential?
All this comes back to a fundamental truth that seems to be whistling by without so much as a nod of acknowledgment.
Children are impressionable.
Children trust easily.
And fall heavily.
Parents, teachers, relatives, even sports coaches and dance tutors have a responsibility to guide their uneasy feet, and then lead by demonstration.
As each child picks up a brush and begins to paint their wall, you might suggest an even stroke, come alongside them and help to fill to the edges and even to fix up mistakes. And as time runs by, the wall only gets bigger, the consequences more serious.
Let's look at violence.
It's everywhere: on the "idiot box", the internet, the news headlines, computer games, the Brisbane Street Mall.
A report published by the Australian Early Childhood Association revealed that, by the time the average child finishes primary school, they will have watched 8000 murders and 100,000 other acts of violence on television.
It went on to warn parents that over-exposure to television violence causes children to respond with symptoms strangely similar to post- traumatic stress syndrome.
The Young People and Domestic Violence survey, 2001, revealed that almost a quarter of the teenagers questioned had witnessed an incident of domestic violence against their mother or stepmother.
Looking to the scriptures, Luke 11:34 has something to say about what we allow ourselves, and our children, to bear witness to: "The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness."
And darkness begets more darkness.
Proverbs 22:6 implores parents - in fact, all sorts of carers - to, "train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it".
Each and every one of us has a responsibility to nurture the children within our circle of influence into wisdom, so that they make choices that don't label them as hazards.
And let's not forget that it's a label, not a tattoo.
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