A school in South Shields, England is in hot water after a teacher accidentally assigned a reading exercise containing an inappropriately graphic anecdote to her 11-year-old students.
The passage was from Bill Bryson’s book Notes from a Small Island, where he describes an infamous case of a woman chopping her husband’s penis off. The story is reportedly not only violent in nature, but contains graphic language.
A parent of one of the children in the class reported that she was “disgusted” at the content of the homework as it was “full of filthy innuendos.”
The school has apologised for the incident, saying it was a “mistake”.
“A member of staff had asked the students to read the extract but had not read it herself first.” Headmistress Claire Mullane explained.
“She was supposed to have picked out a specific paragraph for the pupils to read rather than the whole extract. We in no way condone that sort of approach, however it was an error.”
“One we were aware of what had happened, we acted on it immediately and spoke to the class in question and apologised to them.”
The parents however feel that this apology is not good enough, saying “the damage is done”
“I was disgusted that she came home with this.” One mum said. “I appreciate the school apologised but, in my eyes, the damage is done because the kids have read it now.
“How the Government can say this is acceptable to use in school is beyond me.”
“What other people do in their homes with their children is entirely up to them, but my child does not hear anything like this at home.”
“I’m mortified she has been spoon fed this from a teacher.”
