A police officer has appealed to parents to control their anger and must not go physical when scolding their children to avoid running into trouble with the law.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Benjamin Dokurugu, the Ashanti Regional Coordinator of the Police Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVSSU), said parents’ unguarded rage that drove them to batter, flog or hit children with objects injuring them in the process could send them to jail.

He described as heartbreaking the way some of them cruelly beat and maim their children in the name of discipline only to turn round to beg for forgiveness blaming their actions on the “devil” when arrested and arraigned.

He was sharing some experiences in a lecture on child rights abuse at a monthly meeting organised by the Ashanti branch of the Paediatric Society of Ghana (PSG) at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi.

DSP Dokurugu said the biblical command “spare the rod and spoil the child” is often misconstrued when parents vent their wrath and frustration on their children to do the unthinkable under the pretext of correcting them.

The meeting was attended by doctors, nurses, pharmacists, paramedical staff and other stakeholders in child health care and was aimed at enlightening them on how to seek justice for abused children brought to the hospital for clinical care.

He said it was not wise to stand in the dock to face criminal charges that attract custodial sentences just because of a moral failure to control one’s temper.

He said though in some cases perpetrators were cautioned and discharged on grounds that the act was not committed intentionally “to be cautioned and discharged is still a conviction and can mar one’s untainted record”.

Dr Lawrence Osei Tutu, Specialist Paediatrician at KATH, said the Society was gravitating towards affecting policy directions on child welfare, health and the protection of their rights.

He said the way and manner “we treat our children or destroy the environment makes me wonder if Ghanaians believe in leaving a legacy for posterity”.

The paediatrician said he was not particularly convinced that people really believe in the saying that children “are our future” and this was demonstrated in the fact that no one was interested in the number of children being killed by diseases including cholera.

Dr Osei Tutu said “issues affecting children are no issues unless adults are involved and this attitude must change if we really want to secure and enjoy the future”.