Letters to the Editor

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A problem with Dr. Bergh's article...
Hi there,

I enjoy and appreciate your paper and read it regularly with interest. I wanted to point out an issue with the article in the Spring 2008 issue by Dr. RM Bergh, The benefits of continuing treatment. I picked up a handout at a recent talk by Dr. Adam Cox with the same article (and the same illustration, which is why I noticed) under another title - Why Do Away With Drug Holidays?

On the handout, however, it was made clear that the article was paid for by Janssen-Ortho, and in The School Advocate, it was not.

I don't necessarily disagree with Bergh's opinion, but knowing that it was funded by a pharmaceutical company was important to my perspective when reading it. It's a disservice - and no doubt an unintentional oversight - to your readers to have the article printed without that notation, as it reads like an unbiased article with a purely medical point of view.

Thanks very much, and keep up the great work.

Jeff Clayton
Youth Services
Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario

Editor Note: Thank you Jeff for bringing this to our attention. Your point is indeed well taken. In future, School Advocate will indicate the source of funding for articles where applicable.

The following Letter to the Editor is in response to this news release from the Ontario Women's Directorate, 15 August 2007:

MCGUINTY GOVERNMENT TRAINING TEACHERS TO HELP CHILDREN EXPOSED TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Teachers Given Tools To Identify And Support Students Witnessing Or Experiencing Domestic Violence
TORONTO – The McGuinty government is launching a new program that will train over 6,000 elementary teachers to recognize and assist children who are experiencing domestic violence at home, Minister Responsible for Women’s Issues Sandra Pupatello announced today... [Read more]

For documents, articles and websites related to this issue, see below.

Dr. M. McKay, Psychologist, Diplomate in Clinical Psychology
13 September 2007

Dear Editor:

As a woman and psychologist who has 31 years of experience in child welfare work, I am gravely concerned about Susan Pupatello's latest initiative, Domestic Violence Action Plan (DVAP), which has been proposed for use within the public school system. I have seen the discourse of child abuse subjected to semantic sleight of-hand chicanery that is changing the focus away from the child to the woman. Within the child welfare system male children now run the risk of having physical and emotional harm by an abusive mother redefined as mother abuse. The reasoning goes as follows: the boy has physical injuries because the mother was trying to control aggressive behaviour which was, no doubt, learned from the father. If the child is not subjected to treatment (read social engineering) then he will grow up to be an abuser. I have come across reports in which boys as young as four are described as being "abusive" toward their mothers and reports that claim that the mother "is frightened" of her sons. Thus, the perpetrator can through this verbal dupery, switch the roles of abuser and abused much like the bottle cap under the shell.

The radical feminists have already eliminated the possibility that men can be victims as discussions of domestic violence and partner violence inevitably begin using the word woman victim exclusively in the text. This discriminatory classification deprives men of identification and services despite the clear evidence that men are victims of domestic abuse at rates that are virtually identical for females.

Now, Sandra Pupatello wishes to take this gender profiling into the schools and further deprive males of their rights to be seen as anything other than abusers, abusers-in-training or at-risk for becoming abusers. She wishes for teachers to be trained in gender discrimination and to pass these discriminatory attitudes to the students. Some of the educational materials include feminist re-writing of history and forcible inculcation of ideologies which foster gender hatred. There are cultures in which women are treated like second class citizens. Baby girls are aborted in China, for instance, and in some cultures, women follow several steps behind their male masters and are subjected to harsh and isolating treatment. This is not mainstream Canadian culture, however. Hopefully, it will never be. If these were the targets of Sandra Pupatello's initiative, then I would be rallying behind it. Her targets, however, are apparently intact, functioning families, in which children are to be taught to be quislings, and educators are to be engaged in intrusion into families' lives. As though there is not already enough fatherlessness in our society, this initiative almost appears to be designed to create more, a factor which does place children at risk.

Redefining partner abuse as woman abuse and redefining woman abuse (or suspected woman abuse) as child abuse is good for no one. There is a myriad of services available for women who suffer domestic abuse; essentially none for men in abusive relationships. Do we need another bureaucracy looking for more female victims? I think not. The DVAP is a wrong-headed scheme that will do harm to boys especially but also to families. If we, as a society, continue on in this way, the slap of the backlash will come, possibly sooner than later. We shouldn't wait for the radical feminists to recognize when enough is enough. That won't happen. Women need to speak up and state that they are tired of being labelled as helpless victims. The sisterhood was supposed to make us strong. Instead, this toxic sisterhood has tried to make us out to be whimpering, cowering creatures who are so feeble and forlorn that we need ever-new ways to be found to protect us from the "male oppressor."

It is also time to recognize that labeling males as abusive is harmful to them. Our boys need our protection. Their mortality rate is higher. They are the victims of violent death more often than girls. They are also victims of emotional and sexual abuse by both male and female perpetrators. Our boys are being victimized by gender bias, and this must be stopped.

Dr. Marty McKay, Ph.D., C. Psych.
ABPP may be contacted at 416-580-9570 or via e-mail drmjmckay@psychserv.ca

Related documents, articles and websites...

• MCGUINTY GOVERNMENT TRAINING TEACHERS TO HELP CHILDREN EXPOSED TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: Teachers Given Tools To Identify And Support Students Witnessing Or Experiencing Domestic Violence
  Ontario Women's Directorate, News Release, 15 August 2007
  
• Teachers to be taught to spot domestic violence
  Louise Brown, Education Reporter, Toronto Star, 15 August 2007
  
• Woman Abuse Affects Our Children
  On this site you'll find an Educator's Guide, Video Modules, and more designed for educators to help recognize signs that students may be living with woman abuse; and ways to support these students.... Find out more about this project and the Domestic Violence Action Plan. Funded by the Government of Ontario.
  
• Domestic Abuse Assessment in Child Custody Disputes: Beware the Domestic Violence Research Paradigm
  Donald G. Dutton, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2005
  

  In some states, custody assessors are now required to become familiar with the dynamics of prevalence of domestic abuse since the presence of one or more abusive parents in the house has an impact on the “best interests of the child.” The domestic abuse literature is misleading in setting a framework for abuse incidence and threat source for children. Males are represented as primary perpetrators of physical abuse although data from meta-analytic studies show otherwise. Indirect aggression is scarcely mentioned in the literature, although prevalent in research on aggression. Physical violence directed towards children is actually more likely to be mother-perpetrated. Child safety may be compromised if attention is focused solely on the possibility of abuse from a male perpetrator.
  [Abstract, Journal of Child Custody, 2.4(2005:23ff.)]

• A Sociologist’s Perspective on Domestic Violence: A Conversation with Michael Johnson, Ph.D.
  Interview by Theodora Ooms, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), May 2006

Please submit all comments and letters to Maureen Nolasco, editor.