Penalties for parents

Press, 19 February 1986, Page 18

Penalties for parents

Sir,—There is little doubt that juvenile crime is increasing. It is obvious that existing solutions to this problem are not helping but, as you suggest, aggravating it, and further suggestions have the potential to make things even worse. I suggest that a number of factors have been overlooked. For example just as Borstal and

prison have become advanced training grounds for the criminally inclined, so have our schools become the training ground for beginners. This, area is beyond parental control; Parents need to have their:level of control and responsibilities raised and not lowered as is the case at present We need a reduction in the influence of our professionals. These professionals do not suffer the same consequences as parents, and yet have taken it upon themselves to be able to provide the answers. The schools will have to improve their discipline and remove themselves from the training ground for crime. Professionals will have to be relegated to a position of available aids to parents, not controls. — Yours, etc., R. J. COUPER. - February 15, 1986.