Prisons Commissioner Eddie Lamb has unleashed a scathing attack on "mindless and ill-disciplined" parents and women with "potty mouths" — blaming them for the bad behaviour of teenagers.

Lt. Col. Lamb sent an e-mail castigating the "growing throng of adults" in Bermuda he claims are "impolite, disrespectful, rude, hostile, rowdy and vulgar".

Deadbeat fathers and women who swear and fight come in for heavy criticism in the message, in which he writes: "Anyone who is paying attention will see a general degradation of behaviour in our females."

The message was sent on Friday in the Commissioner's capacity as a governor of the Berkeley Institute, in response to a highly critical complaint from a member of the public about an alleged assault involving a female student from the school (see separate story).

The e-mail, shared with The Royal Gazette by Berkeley board of governors' chairman Calvin White, describes four-year-old children imitating sex acts and swearing at the school where Lt. Col. Lamb's wife teaches, as well as weed-smoking parents dropping off their child at pre-school as "profanity-laced gangsta rap" blares from car speakers.

Berkeleyite Lt. Col. Lamb says he hopes his response to the complaint, which he says he assumes is from a female, is "not interpreted as being too defensive".

The complainant, whose identity has not been revealed, wrote: "Why are so many of your Berkeley students so impolite to adults, so disrespectful, so rude, so loud, so rowdy, so hostile to adults, so embarrassingly vulgar?"

The Commissioner replies: "If the author thinks that the behaviour she describes is peculiar to Berkeleyites, she does not have a grasp on reality.

"In fact, the same adjectives she uses to describe the behaviour of the teenagers could equally and aptly be used for a growing throng of adults!!

"How do you think these children learned their behaviour? Who do you think is responsible for their behaviour? The school? I think not!!!

"It is now commonplace that on any given day, adults around this country display the same impolite, disrespectful, rude, hostile, rowdy and vulgar behaviour, often in front of young children.

"My wife teaches FOUR-YEAR-OLDS who are already displaying this behaviour. Where does a four-year-old learn to cuss, and use profanity in all the right places? How does a four-year-old know how to explicitly imitate sexual acts?

"People, the problem is not with our children but with the mindless and ill-disciplined adults who are raising them (and I use that term very loosely because the manner in which some people are bringing up their children can hardly be called 'raising'). Also, don't get me started on the generational cycle of young, unwed fathers who play no role in the lives of their children.

"Want some evidence? A car rolls up in front of a Government pre-school to deposit children. The heavily-tinted windows are rolled up, the car is shaking from the volume of the profanity-laced gangsta rap blaring from the speakers and, as the door is opened, the putrid smell of weed comes from the car. Out jumps a child and heads into the school. Fast forward this tape to where this child is a pre-teen and you can imagine just how little respect he/she will have for anybody.

"Want some more evidence? I am parking outside my dojo on a Wednesday evening and a car pulls up alongside me, trying to cut in front of me to park. The car finally makes a crude attempt at parking and a heavy-set, middle-aged woman alights from the vehicle. In front of my nine-year-old son, other children leaving the dojo AND the three or four young children in HER car, she loudly and aggressively spews forth filth-flarn-filth at no one in particular, obviously irritated that she could not manoeuvre her car properly owing to the traffic!

"Some more? Come and sit in the parking lot of my office in Happy Valley and listen to the exchanges that take place daily outside the grocery store. Just everyday, ordinary conversation between adults laced with expletives!! It's as if we have lost all sense of decency! And guess who walks by as these conversations are being held? Absolutely children and teenagers!! No wonder our children have no respect for themselves and each other!!

"Incidents like the [alleged assault] are not a result of poor schooling or lack of discipline in the schools but rather, due to POOR PARENTING or, as in many cases, NO PARENTING!!

"Also, anyone who is paying attention will see a general degradation of behaviour in our females. Once upon a time in this village, you would NEVER hear a woman cursing. Even if there was a wuffless [worthless] or absent father, our women (mothers/grannies/aunts) held themselves to a high standard of decorum and respect. Nowadays, it is not uncommon to see women, of all ages, with potty mouths and appalling behaviour.

"Heck, we recently had a mother-of-three fighting another woman in a nightclub and permanently scarring her face with a broken bottle in the process. All of this IN FRONT OF HER 17-old-daughter!

"No matter what the naysayers may say, I believe that, despite its challenges, the Berkeley Institute is STILL a great place to achieve academic excellence. No, it is not the panacea but then again NO school is.

"It is all-too-easy to blame a whole institution for an incident of this nature. However, until ALL adults in this village check their own behaviour, and much of it leaves a lot to be desired, trust me, our children will increasingly be ill-disciplined and rude.

"Moreover, until ALL adults show total intolerance of negative and anti-social behaviour in our children instead of just bemoaning the presence of it, we shall see more of it. As for me, I refuse to complain about it! Rather, I DO something about it!!

"Meanwhile, I shall 'ever to my school be true' and never blame Berkeley, or any other school, for the ills of the wider community."

• What do you think of Lt. Col. Lamb's comments? E-mail your views to news@royalgazette.bm.