Sheelagh Cooper's stance on non-physical use of correction of children continues to meet with some opposition by some sectors of the community...but the Coalition for Protection of Children chairperson isn't budging.

The Island continues to struggle to get to grips with the ongoing bad behaviour by some young people, but Mrs........ Cooper stands by her position that beating them is not the answer to the problem.

"Frankly I do not have a serious problem with a quick tap on the backside of a toddler when it is used as an attention-getting device to underscore a message to a pre-verbal child as long as the intent is not to inflict pain and the caregiver is not acting out of anger, but out of a deliberate and loving attempt to draw attention to something," said Mrs. Cooper.

"I see a vast difference between that kind of intervention and `beating' or threatening to beat a child."

She added: "My concerns about the use of corporal punishment as a tool for shaping children's behaviour is several fold, but underlying my concerns are the following two points:

"One, children learn best by example. I think everyone acknowledges that. That being the case, the example that is set by a parent using the deliberate infliction of pain (physical or otherwise) on a child in order to extract compliance sends a clear message to a child that there is nothing inherently wrong with using the deliberate infliction of pain on others.

"Two, it is rare, if not impossible, to find schoolyard bullies or violent young offenders who have not been subjected to the use of corporal punishment. The most absurd example that I can think of is the use of corporal punishment on a child for hitting another child!"

It has been suggested that the cat-o'-nine tails be reintroduced, Casemates be reopened, which contradicts Alternative to Incarceration... even a curfew for young people, following the violence on Front Street on New Year's eve which resulted a 14-year-old arrested.

Certainly opinions are varied, but society as a whole seems at a loss on how to deal with the issue of youth violence.

The Coalition, recognising the complexity of the issue, continues to seek answers and next month will introduce the first of their Carleton/Bermuda College Advanced Mediation Courses. It is advanced level mediation primarily geared to people whose professional focus is on family mediation.

The course will be taught by Professor Evita Roach, a lawyer and top family mediator from Ottawa, Canada, who will be exploring a range of issues and techniques related to managing conflict within the mediation process itself.

The course will be offered from February 25-28 and invitations have already been sent out to would-be participants. In addition the Coalition for the Protection of Children is also offering a weekend seminar on March 1-3, which will provide an opportunity to explore some broader and very topical issues related to multi-party mediation, the use of apologies as part of conflict resolution (where racial and historical issues play a role) and other fascinating topics.

Professor Roach and Larry Sherman, who specialises in multi-issue, multi-party conflict resolution and consensus building, will co-facilitate the seminar. Mr. Sherman is an architect and urban planner by profession.

Both Mrs. Cooper and the Coalition for Protection of Children's executive director, Velories Anne Figures, are excited about the course and what it will offer.

"Ms Figures is a Harvard-trained lawyer with a mediation background. She combines both her legal and mediation expertise which is particularly helpful in mediating divorce and separation agreements. She is a member of the American Bar Association's section on dispute resolution who will be holding a conference in dispute resolution in March which she will be attending.

Mrs. Cooper has completed all her course work at the PhD level in Psychology and not only is a trained mediator but also is a mediation trainer. The Coalition is expanding their services to add two new mediators to their team as referrals to their services have increased.

"The Centre for Community and Family Mediation, a subsidiary of the Coalition for Protection of Children, was set up five years ago to provide a range of mediation services to the community on an affordable basis," explained the chairperson.

"We teach peer mediation in the schools - all of the public and most of the private schools have programmes - and that involves teaching the kids how to mediate their peers. A lot of our time and effort is spent in the schools, but what is relevant in this case as it relates to the violence is the work that we began at both CedarBridge and Berkeley.

"We have been in both those schools for a number of years and have linked up with the Police and Mark Proctor (policeman) is now operating those programmes at both those schools and is preparing to do some work with the `town' and `country' groups."

There is also court referral mediation, mostly cases of couples in conflict, in the process of divorce or separation and who want to work out a new relationship that enables them to reach an amicable agreement in relation to the care of their children.

"Our reason for being involved in that is primarily our concern for the children," said Mrs Cooper.

"The data on the impact of divorce and separation on the children is unequivocal about the negative impact it can have."

Said Ms Figures: "Of course a lot of those couples were unmarried partners, trying to work through issues of custody and access to children once they split up." Other categories of mediation are parent-teen, victim-offender and gang related mediation which is the issue facing many young people today.

"That's something that we're very keen to provide in this circumstance because quite a bit of what we see happening has gang overtones," said Mrs Cooper, careful with the use of the word gang.

"I wouldn't say these are gangs, but are certainly groups that have a territorial identification and that is creating a level of conflict that is spilling out into the wider community. That kind of thing can be mediated and certainly there is plenty of experience in the States with this type of mediation that would support an effort like this."

Mrs Cooper concedes that drugs play an enormous part in the behaviour of young people. "That's why mediation is just one of a whole host of different kinds of interventions that we have to look at," she believes.

"These are very complex, multi-faceted issues that underlie these conflicts. The mediation process is designed to create empathy on the part of both disputes and allows each disputant to tell their story uninterrupted and unimpeded by the other person in a safe and neutral environment.

"For most of these people it is the first time they have ever actually heard the other person's point of view and it allows for a level of discourse and empathy that never existed before. They have no experience of using a methodology like this to get what they want. Their only experience, and all the stuff they have learned and are modelling, is using violence to get what they want."

Mrs Cooper said the goal of the mediation process is to end up with a win-win solution. "You want both parties to get all of what they want," she stressed.

"This isn't about compromise, necessarily. Mediation really sets out to get both parties all of what they want, but it is a question of identifying what their respective needs are and to have them understand the other side."

Mrs Cooper believes the majority of the teen violence problems are not with school-age children, but rather those in the 16-22 age group, often those who were kicked out of school. Referral to the Coalition by the courts would be that organisation's first access to those young people.

"The involvement of drugs in this process and the involvement of rage are two variables that are not addressed through mediation," Mrs Cooper points out.

"Rage, in my opinion, is the result of experiences in early and middle childhood when the child is placed in what they perceive to be an impossible situation that they can't remove themselves from. It is borne out of frustration, humiliation and an inability to control their environment.

"That is deeply rooted psychological damage. For example, the literature tells us the right combination of abuse and neglect, coupled with economic disparity, will almost have a linear relationship between that and later violent and criminal behaviour."

Some children, despite the odds against them, do not `fall through the cracks', Mrs Cooper concedes. "Those kids have extraordinary ability and resilience," she said. "The question that ought to be asked is not why are these kids violent, but why are some of them not.

"Somebody, somewhere has taken an interest in them and provided that little ray of hope.

"They grow up in conditions, many of them, for which there is a straight line and predictable pattern. To me it is an issue of social stability. We have had a tendency to isolate these problems...drugs in isolation, violence in isolation, poor educational results in isolation...but these are all symptoms of a much larger problem."

American-born Ms Figures has observed the issues facing young people in both the United States and Bermuda. She feels Bermuda is in a unique position to tackle its problems.

"You see something on the news in the US or Britain and someone will say `thank God it is not happening here, yet'," she said. "For me the operative word for them is using the `yet', they have the expectancy that that's where we're going.

"Bermuda, I always thought, was the perfect place, the perfect size, to really make a difference in what's happening in our society. We are an affluent community, have a lot of educated people in this community and actually there is a lot of love and closeness." But, she says, nobody has taken the time and resources to research what is at the root of the problems.

"The same old answers come out, let's beat them some more or lock them up," she said.

"But we've been locking people up for how long and with what results? What I think we want to do is focus on is producing productive members of our society. I think we have to decide it's time to look into this entire situation and come up with some recommendations that will be across the board to really address the real issues.

"These are only symptoms of something underlying. That's why we really need a task force or institute on social stability."