Opinion: Parenting classes could cut need for foster care

There is little doubt that we are a society that shies away from prevention. Yet the answer to a failing foster care system is simply that: Develop less need for the system itself.

Several years ago, I assisted in the development of a parenting course designed for high school students in Fulton County, Ga. The course was required for juniors or seniors in order to graduate. This interactive learning experience was created to teach and promote safe, nurturing, non-abusive parenting to students who oftentimes did not have the type of parents who could model the skills necessary for effective, loving parenting.

So often we hear that there is no training for the most important job in the world: parenting. Well why not? We can produce programs for training and educating those who will be parents. We do not have to wait to teach effective parenting to those families already suffering the effects of abuse and/or neglect. There can be early prevention programs if that is a priority of our communities. We are seeing the consequences of not doing so with the present crisis in foster care.

If we can convince those who provide available resources to set aside a small portion of funds for early, effective prevention programs in our schools and community, we would eventually rid ourselves of an overloaded foster care system. Let's teach our young people how to be nurturing parents. If we do, we will not see their children in foster care.
-- Emily Neligan Ginley, LCSW, Madeira Beach

Reconsider orphanages

Re: Crisis in foster care, editorial, Dec. 2.

Here is my suggestion: Try improved "orphanages."

1. They are cheaper than foster homes.

2. They have a homelike atmosphere,

3. They offer continuity -- which builds confidence, lets children make friends, adapt to others and learn family values.

4. With more people around, there is less chance of abuse.

Foster care hasn't worked, so why not create new orphanages unbiased by past experiences in the "old" orphanages.
-- Dottie Sigh, Crystal River

Dependency mediation can help

Your editorial concerning the Crisis in Foster Care (Dec. 2) well details our overcrowded foster care system in Hillsborough County and the problems the county has in responding to the very real needs of our vulnerable children. In addressing the answers to this problem, you wisely stress the importance of early intervention efforts designed to provide services to at-risk families.

One approach that your article omits to mention involves the use of mediation to resolve disputes early in the case. Dependency mediation is a way of bringing the parents, child protective agency, guardian ad litem and others, along with their attorneys, to privately discuss the issues involved. In mediation, the parties can seek ways to reach a mutually acceptable agreement regarding a solution to the child-abuse and neglect concerns. The agreement must then be approved by the court.

Dependency mediation is a well-established practice around the state, and the courts have the authority to refer these cases to Florida Supreme Court certified dependency mediators who typically are hired by court mediation programs to mediate these disputes.

Research from California indicates that mediation of child protection disputes can reduce the time children spend in foster care. For example, in one study, the average number of days in out-of-home placement was reduced from 84 days to 58 days when compared to litigated cases. In addition, this same study found that at all sites studied, children were more likely to stay in "relative foster care" rather than be in our foster care system when compared to litigated cases.

While the ultimate solution involves prevention and early intervention, we must also recognize that non-adversarial strategies for helping families to be a part of the solution and not just a part of the problem can also serve to help children in many positive ways, including reducing the time children spend in an overburdened foster care system.
-- Gregory Firestone, Ph.D., director, University of South Florida Mediation Institute, Tampa

Young mothers making sacrifices

Re: Don't sugarcoat this situation, letter, Dec. 5 in response to the Nov. 23 story Mothers' Day.

I read the story on the teen mothers, and I found no "sugarcoating" at all in their stories. What I read was the struggle these girls are going through to try to make a better life for themselves as well as their children. I commend each of these girls for the sacrifices they have made for the new lives they have brought into this world. They are traveling a long, tough road.

These mothers have to contend with all the problems of child-raising as well as going to school. This means homework, working to support their children and sleepless nights with sick, crying babies. I guess because this was not written out for the reader, it might be assumed that the young mothers are just basking in the glow of motherhood without any responsibilities.

I don't think so. Some young teens have the good fortune to have parents who will love and support them through whatever problems come their way, while others have to work at Steak 'n Shake to support themselves and their children. So I applaud the school for its support and the girls for their hard work and dedication to their children.
-- Darlene K. Smith, New Port Richey

Restoring discipline in schools

Discipline in the classroom is a very serious problem. I believe that if this is not dealt with in a professional manner, there will be fewer and fewer teachers available, more disruptive, undisciplined children and, of course, less learning. To produce future citizens with commendable characters will take more than academic book-learning.

I have a practical suggestion to make: Employ or assign someone to visit each class frequently and keep in close touch with the teacher. Any child who is a disturbance would be taken out of that class and disciplined. What that discipline entailed would depend on the child and the situation.

I am thinking of a physically impressive military-type person who could instill respect and awe, even fear in a child when being confronted. Whatever is done in basic training in the military, for instance, might be used. It might involve taking a child to the gym and having him follow a strenuous exercise program that would subdue him completely, for the moment, and discourage further disruptive activity in that class. It could be taking the child to the office and having him sit there, alone, for an hour or more, or having to be alone and do the lesson he was assigned to do and didn't. The aim is to impress that child about how he should behave, and the consequences if he doesn't. The child should be helped to discipline himself and learn to be a willing worker in the class.

My belief is that if this military-type of person circulates actively through the classes -- and schools -- the whole "climate" will change, and teachers will be assured that their difficult pupils are taken care of. They are then free to teach as they really want to -- and can.
-- Josephine Tapernoux, St. Petersburg

Governor's words and deeds differ

Re: Cabinet reverses stand on marina, Nov. 30.

Gov. Jeb Bush says what people want him to say but does what business wants him to do. A few months ago, Gov. Bush promised that he wouldn't approve any new marinas for Sarasota County until it passed a manatee protection plan. At present, they're killing about one a month, and that's only what we know about.

Now, four months after his promise, and without any action being taken by Sarasota County to protect manatees, Gov. Bush has approved expanding the Sarasota Yacht Club. The governor, no doubt, hopes we remember what he said and not what he did.
-- Roger W. Gambert, Palm Harbor

Fouling our nest

Re: Losing our future, letter, Dec. 3.

This was a powerful little letter. I, too, found it an abomination that virtually no coverage appeared in print or on the American television news regarding the wildly important environmental meeting in The Hague.

It distressed me, but regrettably did not surprise me, to learn from National Public Radio coverage as well as from BBC News that the U.S. delegates to this meeting were the primary cause of an unsettled end to this follow-up convention to the Kyoto agreement of some time ago.

While the feeding-frenzy of news coverage continues blow-by-blow accounts of a tied election which will seat a U.S. president for four years, little or nothing was brought to the attention of the people regarding the United Nations' attempt to halt damage to the Earth we all must live on. We do not have time to mess around with the economics of cleaning up the environment. We need to just do it, or the only "economics" we'll be able to think about is that of human health. Even baby birds have the instinct to shuffle their little fannies to the edge of the nest before they poop. I wonder, if we offered them worms and seeds, if they would render the only home they have filthy and inhabitable. Perhaps they would, knowing some day they'd learn to fly.

Perhaps the greedy individuals we sent to The Hague to represent the American people think that their children and grandchildren will sprout wings and be able to leave this planet. Perhaps they just don't care. And apparently the news media don't care, nor do the majority of Americans who allow this sort of representation to continue.
-- S.L. Demarest, Gulfport

An outrageous crime

I was outraged and saddened when I heard the news that two rare whooping cranes were shot for no apparent reason. When I learned that someone had been charged, I was even more outraged by his reasoning. William Lonnie Bush Jr. reportedly had the audacity to claim that he thought the birds were ducks when he fired from his truck window. How in the world could anyone mistake a 5-foot-tall, white whooping crane for any kind of duck anywhere in the world?

Crimes against animals are seldom taken very seriously. A slap on the wrist and a "don't do it again" are the punishments that most violators face. Also, due to the lack of open lines of communication between the state and federal law enforcement agencies, the charges in this case will be less serious. Crimes against animals are often the precursor to crimes against humans, a warm-up so to speak.

Those birds were a little over a year old when their lives were tragically ended. And all of the years of hard work and breeding programs to produce those two birds were shot down with them. There are only 400 of these birds left in the entire world. Oh wait, there are only 398 now. William Lonnie Bush should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I'm just sorry that the extent is not as full as it should be.
-- Kimberly R. Brooks, Largo

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