Hi All Although I agree in the main with what you are saying about youth of today, we have taken another track in dealing with vandalism in Ryde cemetery. Certainly, the presence of adults in the cemetery, carrying out transcribing, and working on clearing graves, sees to have had the positive effect of deterring unwanted day time activities such as vandalism. Dog walkers, so long as they clear up after their animals, are another deterrent (but if they simply let their dogs loose, they are as bad as the kids in not respecting the cemetery grounds). We have also worked with groups from schools to tell them what the Cemetery has to offer. We even have a group of young people who are doing their Duke of Edinburgh Award, and their community contribution is by participating in the transcribing and research we are carrying out. Maybe more positive involvement of the younger people can result in some peer pressure on those who do not respect the burial grounds. I suppose the problem may be that not all cemeteries have a friends group, or an organisation such as the Ryde Social Heritage Group, which is looking after the cemetery. Perhaps that is what has to come first. If a cemetery looks neglected, the kids don't know what a valuable resource it is to historians and simply use it as a place to gather and have "fun". ATB Sally-Ann Chairperson Ryde Social Heritage Group