Page 3, 18th November 2011

18th November 2011

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Page 3, 18th November 2011 — School criticised for showing graphic video to pupils
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School criticised for showing graphic video to pupils

BY ED WEST
A SCHOOL in south London is the centre of a controversy among parents after sexually explicit material was shown to 14-yearolds in a Religious Education class.
Parents at Bonus Pastor Catholic College in Downham, south-east London, were alarmed after being told about the videos by their children.
One of the videos, from the 2005 film Keeping Mum, shows a young couple being caught having sex by the girl’s mother, who then seduces a golf instructor after being taunted by her daughter that she “isn’t getting any”. The fiveminute clip includes female nudity and several uses of the F-word.
Another film, A Short Stay in Switzerland, presents a positive image of euthanasia. It shows a woman, after a failed suicide attempt, travelling to Switzerland to get “the medical assistance I need to die”. At the clinic she dies surrounded by her family.
The films were shown to a Year 10 class of 14and 15-year-olds as part of a Religious Education module on adultery. But in February one parent, Joseph Clovis, wrote to the school expressing concern and met headmistress Ruth Holden.
Mr Clovis said: “There were some issues that I really wasn’t happy about. She seemed concerned but she said there was nothing wrong with it.” He then went to the chair of governors, who was surprised by the content, but the matter did not go any further.
He said: “My son was too embarrassed to tell me about it. He only mentioned it to his brother. It didn’t destroy their modesty, but it did attack it. My son had actually stood up in class and asked to be excused, but he was forced to stand down.
“The topic was adultery and fornication. I’m just glad they were not teaching about child abuse and rape if this is how they teach it.” He said that the chair of governors was “visibly horrified” by what he showed her. But then “we got a letter back saying it’s quite appropriate. She acknowledged that some families had a different attitude, but that the children are living in the real world.” Mr Clovis said that “up to 20” families shared his concern, and with the help of family members he set up a website, Bonus Pastor Exposed, which published their correspondence with the school, showed the videos in question and invited Catholic parents to write to the school. Google gave the videos an adult certificate.
Last week, when Mr Clovis, his brother Greg and three other supporters turned up at the school gates to distribute leaflets to children, the school called the police.
Joseph Clovis, whose son achieved among the best GCSE results of his year, has since been told that he cannot attend the prizegiving ceremony.
Father-of-10 Greg Clovis said that other parents had asked not to be identified for the time being and that the website received 12,000 hits on its second night.
He said: “It’s hard to raise children when the school does not reflect our world view. It is important for us to get the school to review the material, to at least take out the offending bits. I would love to take the website down. We could have said nothing, but as Edmund Burke said: ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.’ If nothing else it will help other parents with difficulties with the school.
“Ever since sex education came in we have always said: ‘Look, we don’t want our children to go through this.’ But the reality is that parents consistently lose.” Principal Ruth Holden said: “The school does not concur with the statement made, which does not resemble the reality of school life at Bonus Pastor Catholic College. We are a thriving community with strong support from the parents, the local community and the diocese. Ofsted recently judged the college’s curriculum, care, guidance and support to be outstanding. We also received many outstanding features in the Section 48 Inspection, which is the Religious Education inspection, which takes place alongside the whole school Ofsted inspection.
“The Catholic ethos at the college is very strong and we value the close relationships that we have with our parishes and our community. GCSE RE results are outstanding and the RE department is one of the strongest in the college for both teaching and endorsing our strong Catholic ethos.” The Southwark Diocese Board of Education was unavailable for comment.
Norman Wells of the Family Education Trust said it was “disturbing” that such clips “should be considered suitable for pupils to view as a basis for discussion in a course on Catholic Christianity”.
He added: “It is no less disturbing that a faith school should use such explicit and blasphemous films in class without exercising their discretion and then dig their heels in when challenged by parents. It is quite possible to discuss sexual ethics and life issues without using graphic and explicit films.” Fr Tim Finigan, a parish priest in south-east London, said: “As a priest I have heard many similar stories from other Catholic schools and colleges, though usually those who complain do not wish to be in the public eye, and do not gather materials and correspondence in the way this family has. If they complain... they are fobbed off with excuses and nothing is done.”




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