About a year ago, a video appeared on TikTok showing a Cypriot student acting as a journalist. He asked his classmates in a schoolyard in Larnaca, during a break, if they could kill someone, who it would be. The video was taken down a few hours later for promoting hatred and violence. But the bitterness it left behind still haunts those who saw it.
Last Saturday, a group of young outsiders attacked a student and his father in a schoolyard in Nicosia. The student was hospitalized with a broken nose and head injuries. Two days later, at the same school, outsiders again tried to attack students. On the evening of last Friday, teachers at an elementary school in Nicosia found the schoolyard in ruins. Nighttime intruders had smashed everything.
Young people in Cyprus feel trapped by violence that seems to be everywhere, on the streets, in schools, and online. They feel like their world is a boiling pot, about to overflow. They feel powerless in a country that seems to fail them at every turn. Institutions feel distant and out of reach, transparency feels absent, fairness feels impossible to achieve, and the Justice system feels like it has abandoned them. Their anger and frustration are a cry of desperation against a system they feel they cannot bear. They feel suffocated by a society without vision, a society obsessed with appearances and corruption. They feel stifled by schools obsessed with grades, schools that do not listen to them, do not let them think critically, and do not treat them equally. They feel pressured, stressed, and controlled by their families, who limit their free time and fail to trust them.
Youth violence is a symptom of a lack of prospects that the State ignores. The longer this continues, the louder and more violent their voices become. The political and social system in Cyprus is failing. Society focuses on numbers alone, the percentage of graduates rather than investing in education, GDP growth rather than life satisfaction. These values do not reflect the priorities of young people. The environment they live in is worsening and it cannot contain them.
Violence among children is a reflection of our collective failure. If we care, it is time to act. The only way forward is to build a society that gives young people values, hope, and a future.