Sir, - I wish to take issue with the point made by Mary Higgins (April 7th) that the harsh behaviour of members of the Christian Brothers must not be judged "from today's affluent perspective."
Do people who support Mary Higgins's view realise that boys of nine and 10 years of age were subjected to dreadful punishments for very minor misdemeanours? My husband, for example, was forced by a Christian Brother in a Co Tipperary school to stand on a second-storey window ledge while the window was closed behind him. He was also hung upsidedown over a banister on a second floor. In addition, he was beaten to the extent of requiring hospitalisation and humiliated in a very sexist way.
Needless to say, the entire class was warned that they would be subjected to more punishments if they told anyone how they were being treated. For some of the boys, the mere sight of this Brother made them physically ill.
I feel very strongly that it is a gross misrepresentation of the standards of the 1960s to suggest that such punishment would have been regarded as acceptable by the Irish public generally. What was involved was bullying and this should never have a place in adult/child or teacher/pupil relationships.
One of the most significant contributions which the Christian Brothers could now make would be to fund efforts at providing ab- solute safeguards for all children that they will not come in contact with bullying teachers who can go on to have very damaging effects throughout their entire lives. - Yours, etc.
Jean Fox
Sweet Briar Lawn, Tramore, Co Waterford.