INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / March 3, 1992

 

 

 

College employee seeks legal reforms to protect children

A Douglas College employee is
going through what she calls
“every parent’s nightmare”.

The employee (whose identity
cannot be published so that the
identity of the child and the rights
of the accused are protected) says
the legal system in Canada cannot
protect her three-year-old
daughter from possible sexual
abuse.

The woman says that her
daughter has disclosed sexual
abuse by her father, and she’s
fighting to have unsupervised
visits between her ex-husband and
daughter curtailed. Two weeks
ago, she got a break.

“The court has now ordered a
full evaluation to be done of my
daughter, my ex-husband, and me,

which is great. That’s what I’ve
been wanting. That was a very
good step, because it costs
$1,700 to $2,400 to have that as-
sessment done on your own,
which | don’t have.”

The employee says children are
not protected by the judicial sys-
tem, and now she mistrusts the
whole system.

“If you think the system in
place will protect the child, you’re
in for a real shock. A year ago, if
someone had asked me what |
thought of the services available
to people like my daughter and
me, | would have thought, ‘there’s
lots of support’. No way. Even the
police tell you you’re wasting their
time. There is more funding to
help the accused than the victim.
We're talking about children here,

with no one to protect them ex-
cept their parents, and if it’s a
parent that has done these terrible
things to them, then what do they
have?”

What she wants is the end of
what she calls “court-mandated
child abuse.”

“I'm fighting so that children
can be safe. The child’s best inter-
ests should be immediate, and
until a full assessment is done, ac-
cess should be totally denied or
the court should order supervised
access. As soon as it is established
that abuse has occurred, the ac-
cused should be instantly denied
access to the child. The courts
have to realize that the child is the
important issue.” A

 

 

Adrian Mole continued from page 1

 

north country, The Secret Diary of
Adrian Mole (Aged 13 3/4) is a
delicate comedy that still manages
to deal with some important
issues. Adrian is full of adolescent
angst because he’s at the age
when one is more prone to feel
the need to be accepted. His
parents don’t have much time for
him, so he escapes through
aspiring to be an intellectual, and

by writing in his diary: “Perhaps
when my diary’s discovered
people will realize how miserable
it is to be a thirteen-year-old
intellectual,” he laments in an
opening monologue. Through that
melancholy process we come to
know Adrian Mole.

“There is some pathos, but the
humour dominates,” says Director
Dorothy Jones. “People can
remember how awtul it was to be
thirteen years old. It’s a complex
tangle of family and community
relationships, all seen through
Adrian’s eyes.”

Because it’s Adrian’s perspec-
tive, says Jones, the play must
have a larger-than-life quality in
terms of the set, the other charac-
ters and their costumes. For
example, the school principal is
literally having a suit built up
around him so that he will seem a
frightening seven feet tall. That’s
how Adrian sees him, and other
characters are distorted too. But in
a comedy, those tricks can only be
taken so far, says Jones. “Although
the characters are purposely al-
most cartooned, for the comedy

to work they have to be real.”

The production requires not
only the delicate timing for
humour, but musical accompani-
ment for the dozen songs. “It’s not
a musical; it’s a play with music.
When | selected the play, | was
amazed to find how many people
have read the books and seen the
(PBS) television series.”

Sports Institute Programmer
Chris Johnson, a native of
Yorkshire, is helping out with the
production as dialogue coach.
He’s also helping to choreograp>
a fight scene.

The Secret Diary of Adrian
Mole Aged 13 3/4 (the Play) runs
from March 13-14 and 17-21 at 8
pm, with Sunday matinees on
March 15 and
22 at 2 pm.
Tickets are
$10, and $7
for students
and seniors.
For informa-
tion and
reservations,
call 527-5488. °
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