I have to agree with all of you here, especially with suedonim's last message.
I happen to have been educated in a different country. There are many other countries with very similar education systems.
Although this kind of tragedy can easily happen anywhere in the world, especially if the youngster in question has such tendencies he'll do such or other things to someone else at some point in his life.
Rude children or teenagers are found all over the world and bad behaviour occurs everywhere. However, I do think that where and when I was in school all of us pupils were incredibly respectful towards teachers and quite a lot of them were role models for most of us. A harder life makes you appreciate what you get for free and realise what you can achieve by studying (after all , you only need to sit at a desk, do a bit of writing and thinking, there's no physical labour involved and in the end you'll have a fantastic job and better yourself through your own consistent effort).
By speaking to a lot of British people, it appears that the education system has changed a lot in the last years/generations. That is one point -debatable goals and examinations, cataloguing everything and labelling even very young children according to their so-called abilities etc. IMO a growing child should be exposed to a great choice of subjects and we need to bear in mind they can't really make up their mind on what they want to do with their life, or realise what they're good at or talented at until probably 11-13 years old. But they need a lot of exposure, encouragement and made to work hard. Why do they need to be filtered through so many levels??. BUT kids are rewarded for everything and not for much work really. And there's always the very clear message that you can have as many goes as you want until you achieve the result you want. Quite frankly, in real life you don't get many chances for the same thing (you've failed a job interview you're stuffed. Some think that it doesn't matter, you'll find another one. Well, wasn't the first job the one you really wanted? how bad did you want it then?) There is so much gratification for everything. I'm not sure it's very healthy. As for blaming mothers because they go to work and children suffer... in most countries in the world the very large majority of mothers do go to work everyday and children are much better behaved. The world is not only formed by Europe and USA, there are so many, many children in the rest of the world. Probably more than all the ones put together here. Not that I've met many of them, but I have the feeling they somewhat behave better and work harder at school. Or maybe I'm just being incredibly ignorant...
I don't know what is wrong...it saddens me a lot but that's the way things are. Children need to learn and be told that they HAVE to be well behaved, respect others and do well in school (they just have to do well in school, there's no question of trying later, later is too late, there's something else to be good at later).
And absolutely, it cannot be done without good support from parents and teachers, but mostly parents, family.
I don't like to get involved in all these serious debates, because everyone here is right and you all know what you're talking about and are switched on, but it was just a point I wanted to make and I suspect quite a lot of you think in similar ways, just wanted to say it that's all. I'm in no way criticising any individuals, contries or anything. It's the view I have , my own perspective on what little I know about the British education system.
and hmb, you are sooo right...