WHATEVER the reasons for the mass brawl at an East Lancashire school that resulted in police with riot vans and dogs being sent in for days to protect pupils and staff, it is clear that things have come to a pretty pass when such action is necessary.

Nor can such a response be said to be one of overkill -- when a 20-strong gang armed with pieces of wood and chains was involved in the violence at Moorhead High School in Accrington which left several children injured and led to as many as 19 being suspended.

But as inquiries into this shocking affair continue -- with racism rearing its ugly head and trouble-makers from outside as well as the school's own pupils being targeted for blame -- what is depressing is the explanation that the incidents at Moorhead are a reflection of today's society along with the expressed admission that they could have happened in any school.

It is a view that I accept -- not so much because ours is a more brutalised society today, but because it is far too soft. Would we be asked to expect Moorhead-type mayhem to occur at any time anywhere if old-fashioned curbs like the cane or strap were still employed in schools?

Would we, if, instead of police cautions and the non-punitive community sentences that are dished out by the courts, young thugs could automatically reckon on a stretch in a grim Borstal institution with no 'holiday-camp' frills -- as anyone tearing about a school wielding chains or lumps of wood once could?

No, we certainly wouldn't.

Is it not high time, then, that instead of or in addition to talk of ploughing more money into troubled schools like Moorhead or fencing them in to prevent louts from outside getting in and causing fights, the government, criminal justice system and education leaders realised that rather than pussyfooting with the problem, a zero tolerance response of retribution is what is needed?

Human rights? Fiddlesticks! Immature louts who only regard every wheedling plea for good behaviour as weakness on the part of authority are only likely to understand the sort of no-nonsense shock treatment such antics once got.

If the police or teachers had had the licence to clout a few earholes or cane a few backsides at Moorhead last week and send the ring-leaders on their way to borstal -- as once would have been the common sense remedy -- there would be little worry about such outrage being liable to happen anywhere any time again.