Clinton News-Record, 1986-04-23, Page 37The Clinton and District Christian School held their annual science fair on April 23. The
winners in the Grade 8 division were Trina Poortinga (left) and Charlene Dykstra for
their project on Mastitis. (Alan Rivett photo)
CLINTON NEWS-EEOOHP?, WE
Leis1ation social wo
SPAY, APRIL 30,1 Page 3
fron.. nieet youths' needs hel
BY SUS.A 1'lititl at'Ag'ii; said Lesclllad. -
•
kinds of
to Toronto where T t s i courtbe becomes involved in young people by asking them n a .t .of
' -
calls the Fatuity and Children Services of- don't think X could matte those
A youth rolls away from home "Maybe be we're putting Undue stress on
ma
male prostitution
The Grade 7 winner at the Clinton and District Christian.School science fair on April 23
was Anita Bruinsma for iter project on mushrooms and fungus. (Alan Rivett photo)
until one night when he law about their treatment. When f was 14; t
fine after a frightening 9 erience at gun=Judgements,"
point. Social workers brtttt him home but t fiehiesl called fora compromise het-
have no power to stop from running weender civil rights and chi's needs, Itt
orto achieve a camprom$ldrene, he said ad:
ag
In London, youths as young as 12 are liv-n. vocates of the `Child Saver movement"' of
ing a precarious life of drug abuse and pro- the 1900s must come forward.
stitution but because of legislation such as
the Young Offenders Act and the Child and
Family Services Act, social workers can
do nothing to change the situation.
"These kids are slowly committing
suicide and we can't get a handle on the
situation," psychologist Alan Leschied
told the annual of meeting of Family and
Children Services in Goderich last
Wednesday.
"Runaways, prostitution and drug abuse
seem to have been given encouragement
with the relative inability of the legislation
to allow police and child care personnel to
act in controlling the out -of -control
behavior of some of our young people," he
said.
Because recent legislation was formed
around the belief in children's rights,
Leschied questioned whether there are
times when the needs of children should
take precedence over their rights.
"Comments heard frequently around the
court room these days suggest 'our hands
are tied,"`we're supposed to care for kids
but we can't control them...a lot of times,
we can't even find them' and 'sooner or
later a kid's going to be hurt and so-
meone's going to ask us why I wasn't doing
my job."' he said.
Since the Young Offender's Act was pro-
claimed in 1984, only six youths have con-
sented to a recommendation of treatment
put forth by a mentalhealth practitioner
and a youth court judge. The Act requires
that young people consent to their own
treatment.
"Rarely will a disturbed young person
have the maturity or insight to accede to
their own treatment needs and hence
treatment for that group is all but lost,"
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2 The Square GODERICH
® GEM SOCIETY
The Child Savers movement began at
the turn of the century in reaction to the
neglect and usury of children who were
placed in work camps as early as age 10,
were frequently denied education and
were placed in Kingston- Penitentiary
-alongside adults.
By the late 1880s in Ontario a group of
concerned adults wanted to convince
society that children were more than
uiiniature adults and that childhood was a
unique stage in human growth. They also
wanted legislation to ensure that the
special needs of vulnerable children were
met through the resources of the
community. .
"In reviewing the writings of some of the
more reknowned child savers of the time,
such as JJ. Kelso, expressions such as
care and compassion, prevention of
juvenile crime and child -saving are used
unabashedly,"
"It is interesting to note that our modern
day concepts of prevention, maintaining
the integrity of the family unit prior to out-
side intervention and continuum of care
were extant at the time. They are not the ,
modern day inventions that we sometimes
believe," said Leschied.
At the time of the Child Savers move-
ment, detractors complained of its over-
emphasis on compassion rather than
punishment and control. Others felt the
protection of neglected children through
institutional care abused the rights of
families and children.
But, the defence of the Child Savers was
that they always acted in the best interests
of the children, said Leschied.
"No less than with missionary zeal, they
evangelized their carise an l were in-
strun cental in developing our modern day
child •wejfare system, juvenile courts and
probation departments to name but a few
of their major legacies," he said
Two major movements covet cal of the
Child Savers resulted in the recent legisla-
tion concerning familylaw, The first said
that child welfaare and treatment interven-
tion were not working. Instead it accused
that the system was separating families
rather than re -integrating them.
The second was the civil rights move-
ment which wanted to protect otential
legal abuses against a child's or 'family's
rights or freedom of will. To this move-
ment, resistance to treatment is a right to
be protected.
"Historically, child, welfare personnel
have frequently met with reluctant clients,
children or families whose disorganization
or pathology did not free them' to accept
outside assistance. Anyone who has ever
been involved in a serious -abuse case or
extreme family disturbance know what
resistance is all about," said Leschied.
Meeting children's needs while respec-
ting their rights is the compromise society
must now meet. Lescheid suggested that
compromise could be worked by consider-
ing such things as third party reviews of
contentious protection cases, court
reviews of treatment orders and an in-
creased ability to act in crises to ap-
prehend out -of -control youth with third
party review. ,
To meet the compromise, people who
consider themselves Child Savers must'be
willing to speak out against civil rights if
those rights are preventing the best in-
terests of a child from being served.
Also, social workers must be confident of
their effectiveness and be able to convince
other people of it.
"The heritage of the Child Savers need
not be lost. We need to be more creative.
My greatest fear is that Child Welfare
historians might lood back at Ontario's
Children's Services in the ' 1980s and,
acknowledging the concerns of youth and
the fragility of family, ask, 'Whatever hap-
pened to the Child Savers?"'
CLINTON COUNCIL BRIEFS
Reconstruction to cost X1,00,933
CLINTON - The reconstruction of North
Street from Mary to Dunlop Streets was
tendered and the contract awarded to Lavis
Contracting at council's April 21. meeting.
The job, which is subject to Ministry of
Transportation and Communication ap-
proval, is valued at $100,933.75 and must be
done by August 1 of this year.
Gravel Tenders
Council also accepted three tenders for
gravel: The first was for approximately
2,000 cubic yards of Type A gravel. Lavis
Contracting's tender of $3.89 per cubic yard
was accepted.
C.E. Reid and Son of Hensall were award-
ed the contract for Type B gravel. Their
price was $2.68 per cubie yard with approx-
imately 2,000 cubic yards needed.
The final tender was awarded to Lake
Land Ltd. for approximatley 300 cubic yards
of winter sand at $2 per cubic yard.
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