Forget bravado urges principal

A special assembly held at Wairarapa College yesterday in the wake of a near-disastrous multi car crash last week called on students to make a promise to themselves to let common sense and their innate sense of right and wrong override peer pressure and bravado.
Principal Mike Schwass asked the senior school to reflect on what had happened, to take a lesson from it and make the promise.
The assembly involved over 500 pupils and lasted about half an hour.
Two of the pupils who had been in one or other of the two crashed cars driven by college students spoke to the gathering of their remorse over taking part in the race that went wrong.
The Wednesday night crash wrote off the two vehicles and a landcruiser driven by Masterton woman Lindy Williamson who had been driving home after dark when she was suddenly confronted by two cars racing side-by-side.
A college pupil suffered serious pelvic injuries but all others involved, including Mrs Williamson, miraculously escaped injury.
Mr Schwass said he spoke to the students about the negative impact the crash had on the school in the eyes of the community and the difficulty he had coming to terms with it.
He had emphasised the powerful nature of peer pressure and told the assembly if common sense takes charge situations such as the crash can be avoided.
Mr Schwass described the gathered students as listening attentively and said the two who spoke had been clearly remorseful.
"They recognised the impact the incident had on a wide circle of people.
"One said he felt stupid, embarrassed and ashamed and had made a commitment to himself, the school and his family to make better decisions in future."
Others to speak included two Masterton firefighters who told students how they often felt when they were summoned to crash scenes.
The college's deputy principal Peter Haworth read a statement prepared by one of the students who had been a passenger in the crash.
The assembly to try and heal the wounds caused by what had happened came as Masterton people continued to talk about the events on Manaia Road, and perceived wider problems with teenage drivers, not necessarily school pupils.
A man living in Pownall Street reported being awoken nearly every night by cars racing along the street in the early hours of the morning.
He had noticed evidence elsewhere of boy racers doing night-time "wheelies"
"It is especially evident in the Coopers Street and Roberts Road areas."
He said many cars being driven by teenagers were "clearly illegal."
"They have heavily tinted windows and have been lowered so much they scrape every time they go over the courtesy crossings."
He said he was sure bad driving tied in with other incidents of street crime, including vandalism and littering.
"We've had our letter box shoved over twice and someone tried to push his way into our house.
"There is also a lot of broken glass around town, from where bottles are just tossed out of car windows."
An anonymous e-mail sent to the newspaper said while acknowledging last week's crash could have been a lot more serious and someone could have died the young drivers were " teenagers - nothing more, nothing less."
"Hell, I raced in Manaia Road when I was a teenager, hundreds of times."
The writer said the crash had " everything to do with being immature, being bullet proof, wanting to take on the world and making a bad judgement call on the night."
The crash was " never about winning a race at the time of impact - it was pure panic and fright."
"By the time both the young drivers saw what was going to happen it was too late."
Cars now go much faster than " they did back in my day."
"Get over it.
"Let's give our kids some support instead of bagging them.
"We were all young and dumb once and we learnt from our mistakes.
"Teach them to be responsible, but give them room to grow and learn."