From: Andrew Johnson
Date: 2009-07-19 11:25:55
This isn’t the first time a UFO scenario has been done at a school www.thisisgrimsby.co… comments are especially interesting because no-one appears to understand the meaning behind this event, and as a psychological test. Does this constitute a type of child abuse? Can the police can also validate their time as participants…….Oh sorry, its all a game!……….. Also, the latest BBC Torchwood Series, aired between 6th and 10th July had a plot about aliens taking control of children’s behaviour. www.bbc.co.uk/torchw… Finally, the BBC are about to air a new version of “War of the Worlds” (Jeff Wayne’s 1978 musical) www.bbc.co.uk/radio2… Is anyone seeing a pattern here…? Our teacher’s been abducted by aliens! Pupils terrified as UFO stunt backfires By Paul SimsLast updated at 10:08 AM on 17th July 2009 Comments (28) Add to My Stories It was supposed to inspire pupils to write more creatively. But the arrival of a UFO at Southway Junior School also inspired something rather different – terror. Some of the seven to 11-year-olds were left in tears after a spaceship apparently crash-landed and a teacher was abducted by aliens. Enlarge A police officer helps pupils to understand the ‘crash site’. The officer and a community support officer also helped them produce witness statements Debris from the ‘spaceship’ littered the school grounds To make it look realistic, the school obtained sirens and flashing lights from the police and littered the grounds with debris from the ‘spaceship’. Parents yesterday condemned the school for ‘terrifying’ their children and claimed that teachers had gone over the top in trying to ‘fire their imagination’. The ‘Everyone Writes Day’ – for all 370 pupils at the school in Burgess Hill, West Sussex – was designed to develop youngsters’ writing skills. It is based on an idea from the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the National Literacy Trust. The aim is to find ways to take writing beyond the classroom and to provide ‘exciting stimuli’ for storytelling. At the start of the day, head Diana Goss informed pupils that an alien craft had crashed near the school and pupils were encouraged to ‘follow a trail of debris’ before stumbling across the UFO. Sussex Police set up a crime scene around the crashed craft and supplied a police constable and a community support officer for two hours to help the children produce witness statements. Pupils were told that Joy Law, the school’s learning support teacher, who is responsible for special needs pupils, had been abducted. ‘Invasion target’: Southway Junior School in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, where the ‘alien crash-landing’ was staged Taken away: A teacher at Southway school was ‘abducted’ like Tom Cruise in the 2005 movie of War Of The Worlds, above The youngsters also examined the evidence around the crash site on the school’s playing field. At the end of the day-long event last Friday, Mrs Law joined the children at an assembly to reassure those who feared she truly had been abducted. Linda Molds, whose son Harry, nine, is autistic, said: ‘He was genuinely worried that Mrs Law had been abducted. ‘Because she deals with the learning support kids, they’re all very close to her – and I know many of them were terrified by the whole experience. ‘Harry will take everything you say literally, so when he was told aliens had taken Mrs Law away and the police were investigating – and then he actually saw the police – he believed every word.’ Lisa Maynard, 34, whose nine-year-old daughter Ashleigh is also a pupil at the school, said: ‘She was incredibly upset by the whole thing. ‘She came home in tears, telling me Mrs Law had been abducted. She’s very fond of Mrs Law, and the whole thing really shook her up. She couldn’t sleep. ‘It was just too realistic, too dramatic. All the police, the sirens, the cordon – it was just too much.’ Karen Simmonds said her son Ollie, nine, was very upset. ‘He couldn’t sleep for days,’ she said. ‘We live close by, so he spent all weekend thinking the aliens might come down and kidnap him, too.’ Last night, in a statement the school said: ‘A few parents expressed concerns that some of the children had been upset by the apparent realism, and the head has spoken with them personally. ‘The school would never knowingly do anything to upset or alarm children. ‘The children were reassured throughout the morning that they were perfectly safe. They produced some excellent creative and factual writing.’ Sussex Police said: ‘The police input was well-intentioned, and it was thought pupils would have a fun day.’ Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/…
