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PAGE 6 â€" WATERLOO CHRONICLE. WEDNESDAYy, FEBRUARY 23. 1983 Second Class Mail Registration Number 5540 The disclosure in the Ontario legislature by Attorney General Roy McMurtry Monday showing evidence that at least seven and as many as 28 babies died at Toronto Hospital for Sick Children from deliberate overdoses of the heart drug digoxin is indeed a sad statement. McMurtry‘s release, based on a study done by the Atlanta Centre for Disease Control probing mysterious deaths at Sick Kids between July 1980 and March 1981, is just another ripple in a seemingly endless wave of bad publicity surrounding the institution since the shocking arrest of nurse Susan Nelles two years ago. And that is the biggest crime of all. There are no excuses to be made here re the cirecumstances surrounding the deaths; if indeed criminal activity was involved, no stone should be left unturned in an attempt to solve this grievous situation. But the manner in which the ongoing investigation is . being handled is leaving a permanent scar on one of the world‘s finest medical institutions. And that is simply not fair. WITH parents screaming "BHack to the Basics",. teachers trying to remember what the basics are, and Ministries of Education never letting the left hand know what the right hand is trying to do,. it‘s almost inevitable that the subject of corporal punishment in the schools is re vived. It‘s a perennial, and it‘s always good for a headline, whether you are for or against. It‘s almost as popular as capital punish ment for criminals. And you have no idea, gentle reader, how many people, including students, are in favor of that. I‘m quite sure that a referendum would show a majority of Canadians would vote to restore that particular form of official murder. Compassion must first and foremost be extended to parents and relatives of the children in the cases under study: no discovery of intentional wrongâ€"doing, no changes made to prevent similar situations from occurring will ever lessen the heartache of losing a child, their child. But while criminals make‘ up a com paratively small segment of our society, rotten kids are always there in great numbers. And there‘s always someone who wants to pound them,. vicariously. through the school system . But what too, of the heartache experienced by the hundreds of Sick Kids‘ administrators, staff, doctors, nurses and volunteers, many who have dedicated their life‘s work to making the institution such a revered one worldwide. Every day of every week of every year hundreds of children are given the best care there is, many flown in under lifeâ€"threatening circumstances only to emerge days and months later with new leases on life. Usually, the business of beating kids is seen in black or white. Or black and blue. On the one hand, you have the fundamen talists, who go back to the Old Testament, Certainly the arrest of Nelles, the probe by Ontario Supreme Court Justice Charles Dubin, the Atlanta study and the impending police investigation have cast a giant shadow over the entire operation at Sick Kids. Essential studies? Yes. But we can only hope that the paint brushes are soon put away, and that these ongoing inquiries are quickly consolidated into constructive and substantiated findings. _ That wa\ Sick Children‘s can soon get back to being what we feel it has always been â€" an institution with integrity and respect as hallmarks â€" not suspicion and shame. BILL SMILEY published every Wednesday by Fairway Press, a division of Kitchenerâ€"Waterioo Record Ltd., owner 225 Fairway Rd.S., Kitchener, Ont. Sick of it Waterloo Chronicle office is located in the Harper . Haney and White Law Office Building (rear entrance,. upper floor) Parking at the rear® of the building Open Monday to Friday, 9:00 a. m to 5:00 p.m address correspondence to Waterioo office 45 Erb St E.. Waterloo, Ont. N2J 1L7, telephone 886â€"2830 On the other side of the schtick are the other crazies: psychologists and such, who think a kid who is thumped will be warped for life: mothers who read articles by psychologists; and former childâ€"beaters who are now viceâ€"principals. Both the extreme camps, of course, are full of crap. In the first group, we have people who were whipped unmercifully when they were kids, and now, by some weird type of logic, insist it was good for them. They can hardly wait to spread some of this "good" around. And in the second group are all the other people who were whipped unmercifully ‘"Spare the rod and spoil the child."" These people forget that several of the disciples were â€" fishermen, and that what this particular one meant was, "If you don‘t let the kid use your spare rod once in a while, he‘ll grow up to be a lousy angler.~ And in between, as usual, are all the confused, decent and sensible people like you and me, who have given our kids the odd belt. and felt rotten about it. I don‘t remember Jesus ever saying anything about pounding kids, but I may be wrong Publisher: Paul Winkler Manager: Bill Karges Editor: Rick Campbell established 1854 No time for bullies L/ '/{/,/, //’// "It‘s over. That‘s all I can say. You don‘t really want to write up this game, do you"" /4 ‘,,/ 7 //‘v ’//, 4////// ////%/// ‘ It is written when they were kids and are trying to prove that that is what has made them queer ever since. _ â€" o_ A plague on both their houses. Most of us olders were whipped, now and again, but not unmercifully, and we deserved every stroke of the hairbrush, skelp of the vardstick, and swish of the willowâ€"switch. Beating kids in school? Many parents would like it done. Many others would have a lawyer on you. There are only two reasons for a teacher to use a strap: 1) he or she is a poor teacher; 2) it adds a little drama to the humdrum of the classroom. In fifty years, I‘ve never seen strapping scare anybody or deter anybody. It didn‘t warp us physically or psycholoâ€" gically. It taught us something about the society we would be living in as adults â€" that there are certain limits, and if you transgress them, you take your licks. I‘ve smacked my own kids, occasionally, and the grandboys, but their smoldering anger,. and mine, never lasted more than fifteen minutes, because the smacking was not done in malice, and they knew they were asking for it word to the bleeding hearts. There are d 7. m /1 yit WY ///;/,/// /r///'////,///”f// /é}////‘%////// //////// 7 Z///’///////’ What to do? 1‘d turf him out of school for a year, and let his parents put up with him. Serve both parties right. â€" However, let‘s think for a moment about the sensitive, young woman teacher who asks a lout to do something, and he says, ‘"Screw you"‘? So the punk gets a "suspenâ€" sion" for a few days (translation: holiâ€" day). And the teacher sits, shattered, among her crumbled ideals. But I have no time for the bully in the classroom. Teachers who know their stuff and have some strength of character have few discipline problems. In the whole debate, naturally, my sympathies are with the teacher. There are times when I would have been happy. not just to whip, but to strangle some kid, and go to jail for life meaning five years, with good behavior. Looking back, 1 almost wish I had. It‘s peaceful in prison. many more insidious ways to warp a child‘s personality than physical punishâ€" ment. The real sadists of the classroom, and they are very few nowadays, are those who use personal harassment, hectoring, and sarcasm. These can do far more damage than a good thump. Ask any kid. Any opinions? Let‘s have them UW Warrior hockey coach Jack Birch after his team‘s 12â€"5 loss to Windsor Friday SEE PAGE 23 /y