Parents are failing at home when it comes to rearing their children, according to Government Probation officer Mr. Alfred Maybury Jr.

"The role adults have in relationships with young people is falling by the wayside,'' he said yesterday. "We fail to see what is impacting on them to cause this negative behaviour. They are becoming more aggressive not only to their parents but to each other.'' Mr. Maybury, who was speaking on the "deterioration of Bermuda's youth'' and the role of men and women in Bermuda at a Business and Professional Woman's Association of Bermuda breakfast meeting, warned that it was dangerous to only highlight negative things young people were doing.

"All we do is talk about the negative things that the young people are doing and not the positive,'' he said. "We need to realise that our young people are our greatest assets. And they don't stand a chance if they are not given an opportunity.

"We need to prepare young people at home, school and in the job market and once prepared we need to give them a chance.'' But he also said that lack of discipline was hurting young people.

"I remember when children had a fight one day and the next day they were friends again,'' he said. "But today, if they fight one day they want to continue the fight the following day.'' He added that parents have "digressed'' when it comes to rearing their children and have decided that young people don't need discipline.

"We have to make children understand that if they do something outside the home there will be consequences.'' He said teachers had to spend most of their time trying to control the classroom instead of teaching, because of undisciplined children. "The community is responsible for all the Island's children and when they sit on the wall and you drive past you are looking at the community,'' he said.

"Young people need to take advantage of everything that is made available to them such as education. So much of our system has passed them along.

"We had the Archibald Report identifying the problems but no one made sure the sore was healed. We need to stop putting band-aids on them and solve the problems.'' Mr. Maybury said the education system is a problem and there are no role models for young men.

"Most men come from single parent homes with a woman, then they attend schools which have a majority of women teachers and if they have to go to Magistrates' Court there is a fifty-fifty chance that they will be dealt with by a woman.

"Somewhere along the way the men went astray and lost sight of their responsibilities to their children,'' Mr. Maybury said.

He added that one of the solutions to the problems concerning Bermuda's youths is that "parents must be supportive of each other so our children can see the unity''.

The Business and Professional Women's Association of Bermuda has been in existence for 19 years.

Their primary objective is to educate and support young girls and women, and they also encourage business and professional woman to be a mentoring group.

President of the Bermuda association Mrs. Dolores Darrell said: "We chose Mr.

Maybury to talk to us because he has his finger on the pulse of the deterioration of the young generation and we are deeply concerned.''