Would you report a 12 year old unattended on a train?

[GloGirl]

If you saw two 12 year olds on a train without a grown up would you report it?

"Any adults who saw two 12-year-olds getting off a train on their own should have questioned that."

YABU - call the police!
YANBU - no, I wouldn't

BBC News - Missing Balloch schoolgirls spent night locked inside train
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-56476935

Really weird story.

At 12 the parents should know where their kids are. My DD is 12 and there's no way I would have let something like this happen, I know exactly where she is at all times. This is on the parents, and they shouldn't be blaming anyone but themselves.

I really hope there is cctv on the train to find out what really happened!

There will be toilets on the train to hide in.

This us the kids and parents fault alone.

I think @howmanyhats has a point. It's fairly standard practice for reporters to appear terribly sympathetic to people they are interviewing and put words into their mouths, and you have to be very sophisticated to realise what they are up to. It's really quite likely that the reporter said to the mother "Do you think any adults who saw them on the train should have questioned it" and she simply said yes because she was exhausted, not thinking very clearly, and simply perceived that if someone had questioned it all concerned would have been saved a lot of worry.

@Cowbells

Not mormally. They go to school by train, often coming home quite late after sports or music practise.

I might if it was the last train or if they appeared to not know where they were going or what they were doing.

If it was the last train, there may well have been few people in the carriage to notice anyway in the current circumstances. Most people on trains are completely oblivious to their surroundings. I cleared a train on Thursday (an early rush hour one so not excessively late at night) and came across a young man wearing earphones who was completely unaware that we'd been stopped at the terminus for a couple of minutes. The long-winded announcement about connections and ticket validity must have completely passed him by.

Wonder why it’s reappeared in the Daily Mail a couple of days later from the original article

www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/tired-hungry-missing-girls-discovered-23764580

The whole sorry incident started with the two girls breaking the law by travelling out of their local authority.
I would never look twice at two 12 yr olds on a train, and judging ages would be even more tricky as they would have been wearing legally required masks.

@sashh

The other girl's family is very quiet, I bet she is grounded and hearing, "I told you not to hang around with Amy"

You are so right! I’d love to hear the other side of the story

Thousands of senior school children get the train to school every single day and do so unsupervised so nope, I wouldnt report them.

@ssd

There will be toilets on the train to hide in.

This us the kids and parents fault alone.

Staff should routinely check the toilets when clearing, that was drummed into me in training.

I wouldn't bat an eyelid at a 12 year old on a train by themselves or with friends. I used to get the train into town at a similar age to mooch around top shop on a Saturday.
The girls were silly, they most probably did hide from the conductor. The parents must have been worried sick but there's no harm done.
If it were my dc there would be some kind of consequence and a discussion about what to do in an emergency in the future.

Blaming others for her bad parenting.

No I wouldn't report it. I would, however, expect 12 year olds to have more sense than to sneak on to trains.

@GreyhoundG1rl

The mother is demanding to know why no one spotted them. Why doesn't she demand to know what the fuck they were playing at?

Well exactly.

Balloch is a small village near Loch Lomond. It's the end of the line for trains from Glasgow, which is about 20 miles away. These two girls were bored and just decided to get on a train into the city?

Yes if Scotrail has a process for checking over trains when they go out of service for hte night they should have been found - but they shouldn't have been there in the first place.

I also see it's just one mother who is complaining - the other girl's parents are obviously far more responsible.

With the design of some trains there are plenty of places for small 12 year olds to hide that aren’t ‘obvious’. I’m on a train right now and can see a few.

They’ve hidden and come up with the story to deflect from the fact they know they’re in loads of trouble.

Wouldn't even notice a 12 yo in a train. If I did, I would not inform anyone would assume that they were going to school/home, hobby or see a friend.

In lockdown, two girls hanging around at a station after 9 or 10pm, I would be suspicious and wondering what’s going on as that obviously is not school time. With that said, I imagine staff at the station probably have kids trying to sneak through without tickets/hanging around, regularly. How are they meant to know if kids are 16 or 12, from round the corner in Glasgow or from a nearby town like Balloch? I have to say, if other passengers saw them on the Helensburgh train presumably at 10-11pm, you’d think eyebrows would be raised.

We live locally and it’s been common knowledge that some kids have been using the local trains as a mobile youth club during lockdown to drink, smoke and hang out.

The mother is an idiot for blaming others. Hope the girls got a bit of a fright and learned a valuable lesson. Do feel sorry for both sets of parents as they must have been terrified when they were missing overnight.

Even aside from transport to school, why shouldn’t 12 yr olds use public transport the same as the rest of us? Also we can’t really tell from the photos released how old the girls looked. Some 12 year olds look older and you certainly wouldn’t report a 14 yr old.

Even at 10 or 11pm in lockdown?! Maybe I’m out of touch!

I can’t believe people are blaming the mum here. I was the type that would do this kind of thing when I was younger so can imagine exactly what they did. I do think trains should have conductors not just drivers to keep young girls safe.

Also navigated Rio & Sao Paulo as a young teen pre-1980.

OK, that's NOT normal - if your parents allowed that they were neglectful.

@Notnownotneverever

Even aside from transport to school, why shouldn’t 12 yr olds use public transport the same as the rest of us? Also we can’t really tell from the photos released how old the girls looked. Some 12 year olds look older and you certainly wouldn’t report a 14 yr old.

Anyone can use public transport if they pay for their journey and that journey is essential.

Not the case here obviously.

No, there are endless kids on trains going to school etc.

The mother is just scared and lashing out.

Haven’t clicked on the link, but based purely on your question absolutely not. I travelled loads on trains as I commuted to school by train like many of my peers.

On the other hand, if I saw a young girl (hard to age them but obviously under 16), late at night I might smile at them, ask if they were okay if they looked scared etc.