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You can't imagine my horror, as I looked at the morning paper and the bold print seemed bigger than the actual headline to me: "Parents, don't spare the rod" [Mary Mitchell column, April 6]. It is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and this is the best Mitchell can do? I wrote a Positive, Non-Violent Parenting Resolution, which was adopted by City Council on Nov. 1, 2005. Mitchell was invited to the hearing on this resolution. Had she attended, she would have heard the effects of corporal punishment as discipline from many, including the Chicago Police Department, the Department of Youth Services and several victims of abuse. It is also apparent Mitchell did not do her column research. Counseling is available to anyone; they only need ask. Perhaps this is the problem, and education truly is the key. In conjunction with the Chicago Department of Youth Services and Chicago Public Schools, we will be educating teachers, children and parents on alternatives to violent discipline. God bless Chicago for standing up for our children's rights. We've had enough fractured arms, dead children, dead spirits.
Michelle DiGiacomo, Executive Director
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