"Subway ride darkens as teenagers turn ugly"
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Subway ride darkens as teenagers turn ugly
February 27, 2008
Joe Fiorito
My friend Mary was coming from an early morning appointment; now, at 10 a.m., she was on her way to work, heading south on the Yonge line.
She was sitting on a long seat facing the aisle; there was a woman on her left and on her right, in a two-person seat, was a solitary man.
Mary said, "And then seven teenagers a mix of boys and girls got on at Bloor."
Here comes trouble.
"Two of the girls let's say they were 15 years old crawled over the man and sat down. One girl sat on the other girl's lap. They were laughing, tripping over the man, and I thought, `That's obnoxious; oh, well, they're young, they're just having a good time.'"
Mary went on reading her book.
Hang onto your hat.
"The girl who was sitting on top of her friend began yelling insults at everyone in the car, yelling in my ear, yelling that we didn't know anything about life. She was swearing. I don't recall the words but I thought, `She's got a bad mouth on her.'
"Maybe she was just having a bad day, a fight with her parents, or her boyfriend left her. She was angry and arrogant, too. She told us what a beautiful person she was."
Things got ugly then.
"She started yelling at the man. She called him a pedophile and a racist. He was reading the paper, I think. He hadn't been paying attention."
He paid attention fast.
"The yelling girl said, `I know you're coming to my house tonight to rape me.' The man raised his head and put his head back down again and she kept at him. Finally he said, `I'm not any of those things. I don't know why you're saying that.'"
The whole car, wondering the same thing.
Mary said, "I thought there probably wasn't anything any one of us could say to her, or she'd turn on us with an attack. I could feel the colour rising in my cheeks. The man was very mild but he'd obviously been stung.
"The woman beside me came to his defence. She said, `Why are you yelling at him? You don't know him.' The girl said to her, `You're a bitch.' I don't remember all the insults. At one point I said, `Maybe if we lowered our voices we'd all calm down.'"
The girl would not calm down.
"The tallest of the boys turned to the woman and told her to be quiet, there was nothing she could do, that she wasn't doing anything with her life.
"Finally, one of the boys I wish I could tell you which one and I've thought so much about this threw a first punch, and the punches passed over my head. I reached up and pressed the yellow emergency bar. I didn't see the man get hit."
The train stopped at the College station. The kids fled through the crowd. Mary said, "The man's glasses were broken. There was blood all over his face."
Mary had some water and someone else had paper towels. They cleaned the man's face as best they could. And the police and the paramedics came and they made sure he was okay, and the man went on his way. Mary said, "A couple of us talked afterwards. We didn't know if the kids had weapons."
She went to work; she walked. She is still angry, still upset; she still wonders if there was anything else she might have done. I think not. It happened much too fast and yes, those kids had a weapon.
Teenaged rage.
Joe Fiorito usually appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Email: [email protected]
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http://www.thestar.com/GTA/Columnist/article/307311
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