Sir, - Are children becoming the untouchables in our community? This is the question that many professionals who work with children are beginning to ask themselves.
A sense of great concern has gripped the public in the last few years, focused on the sexual and physical abuse of children. Hardly a week goes by without a media report in which yet another abuser is jailed for a litany of offences. Almost all offenders are male. Some are parents or close relatives, while others have gained access to children through the nature of their work. All these people have clearly betrayed the trust placed in them.
In response to public concern, organisations providing services for children have moved rapidly to protect their charges. Measures include checks on new employees and rigorous investigative mechanisms to deal with complaints. The current high level of vigilance, sometimes bordering on paranoia, is certainly making things very difficult for child abusers. This is welcome.
Unfortunately, the innocent are beginning to suffer along with the guilty. Stress levels are rising, particularly among decent men whose work brings them into close contact with children. These include teachers, religious and those involved in sport and leisure activities.
Part of the problem is the hairtrigger nature of the procedures now in place in many organisations and the resultant stigma attached to becoming the focus of an investigation. Even if there is ultimately no substance to a complaint, the affected person can experience a lot of uncertainty and trauma. As things stand investigations can take months, or even years. There can be repeated interviews by employers, health board officials and even gardai. There may also be suspension from work.
For professionals whose career advancement is based on their good name this can all be very damaging, even if they are completely innocent. There is surely something fundamentally wrong when an investigative procedure becomes so complex and protracted that it becomes a punishment in itself.
We have now entered a phase in which there is intense scrutiny of the way in which adults of both sexes relate to children. There is a certain vagueness about what should be considered as appropriate behaviour towards children, and about who should be the final arbiter of that behaviour. This is certainly not a satisfactory state of affairs.
Teachers, for example, are advised in an official handbook issued by the Irish National Teachers' Organisation "to avoid any physical contact, which may be misinterpreted by a child, parent, or any other observer". Between the lines here is a warning that the initiative for making a damaging complaint can be taken by anyone in the immediate vicinity of the teacher, based only on a personal interpretation. But what is appropriate physical contact? Standards vary, and the context can be of critical importance.
As a teacher, I know that many of my colleagues now see the best and safest kind of physical contact as being no contact at all. This is a view now widely shared by other groups involved in sport and leisure activities.
This is a real tragedy. Physical contact is an important part of human experience. Children need physical contact as part of the growing process. It is a well-established fact that young children who do not experience physical contact from adults in their early years can suffer serious emotional difficulties in later life. Everyone needs touch as an expression of caring, of friendship and support. Young children with disabilities and those who are ill or in danger need physical assistance - which involves hands-on contact.
Children must be protected, and it is right that the appropriate steps be taken to ensure that this happens. At the same time, there is a need to find a balance between the necessity for child protection and welfare and the need to safeguard the rights and peace of mind of people whose work brings them into close contact with children. Otherwise children themselves are going to lose out.
Failing more careful public examination of this issue, those in the caring professions, men in particular, will begin to think twice about working with children. - Yours, etc., Sean Andrews
Dara Court, Celbridge, Co. Kildare.