"KIDS swim free and run riot."

"Sex in changing rooms."

"Threats to the staff."

"Vandalism in loos."

Extracts from front page news (Oxford Mail, April 18). To say I was appalled is too dismissive. To say I was demoralised takes no account of my feeling of resignation about the times we live in.

Was it 485 pupils removed from county schools for misbehaviour last year alone? We learn daily that teachers can't handle classes, that parents can't cope with children, that the police can't cope with the crime.

Our society is disintegrating. Being 'appalled' is useless. We have to act and act strongly.

The 17-year-old lout who threatened the Ferry Pool's staff with a knife and who was known by the police, "was warned for breaching public order". Well, well! It makes me tremble with fear or is it laughter?

The city council has planned to run the scheme for three years at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Stop it. Remove the privilege. End the free swimming. Back to the 'status quo' and tell the complaining parents who will have to provide pleasure for their children, and of course supervision, that the well-intended measure will be reviewed after an indefinite period.

No leaders are likely to result from political parties. Schools, supposed providers of standards, seem impotent to do anything.

Let education come from such as the lifeguards, who choose not to be named through fear of consequences.

LIONEL HORNER Eden Drive, Headington, Oxford