``It could happen here in 50 years from now, not at this juncture, since we have still not reached a saturation point where exposure to poor outside influences is concerned,'' says HS Dhillon, Principal, YPS School. These days they learn more from the television and the net than from their teachers. Violence, a psychologist points out, is built up slowly in an individual's personality as he faces up to different situations in life and deals with them. The anger against a teacher, a friend or the society can manifest itself variously, including in the form of violence, if it remains unattended for too long. Discrimination at school is a major reason for the anger andfrustration, especially among the teenagers. ``The teachers discriminate between students on the basis of their academic performance which leads to some of them drawing themselves into a shell,'' says Dr BS Chavan, Head of the Psychiatry Department at Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32.

Dr Chavan gets many cases where children stop eating, are extremely irritable, don't want to talk to anyone, have disturbed sleep and are sad to the core. Often, the parents fail to read these signs and continue to nag them and treat them as normal children. They don't realise that these children need external help.

It is the lack of self-esteem, or low self-esteem, which requires bucking up. For this, the children need someone around them whose shoulder they can put their head on and reveal all, says Sushma Thakur, a mother. They need a confidante and a guide who can take them through their personal crisis.It is due to the lack of this support system that they Many have access to weapons of their wardswhich become handy tools of expression, says another parent. The constriction of movement for recreation also influences the mind of these children, points out Dr Chavan. They play less outdoor games, watch more violence on television. They draw a parallel between life on the video screen and their real life, without realising that video games could offer up to three fatal errors before shutting them out, but even one fatal error can finish them in real life.

But it is possible to prevent such occurrences if the parents and teachers mould volatile children through greater interaction so that they have a deeper sense of belonging and consider themselves to be a part of their surroundings, says Dr Chavan. The quality of time the parents spend with their children is also important, says Dr Mohan. Parents must not nag their children and run them down. ``They should make their child emotionally stronger. They don't have to succumb to each of their demands. They just need to be more understanding and more vocalabout the difference between good and bad.''

By way of prevention, says Dr Mohan, NGOs could set up helplines for youth which could counsel them when they are under duress, instead of the children suppressing their anger and letting it fester.