Please, no. Is this indoctrination, or merely misguided?
Primary school pupils are to be shown a film about the dangers of terrorists as part of an organised safety day.
More than 2,000 10 and 11-year-olds will see a short film, which urges them to tell the police, their parents or a teacher if they hear anyone expressing extremist views.
Beg pardon? An extremist view for that age group is a classmate saying that Drake and Josh are better than Zack and Cody. Using kids of 10 and 11 for surveillance is not only worrying, it's downright obscene. Some may even term it child abuse as it necessarily strips away a child's natural innocence and instead instils suspicion and fear in its place.
I'm one of the 'some'.
It uses cartoon animals to get across safety messages.
A lion explains that terrorists can look like anyone, while a cat tells pupils that should get help if they are being bullied and a toad tells them how to cross the road.
Terrorists can look like anyone? And this is being fed to pre-pubescents? For Chrissake anyone with any agenda can look like anyone else. MPs sometimes look like respectable members of the public, for example.
What on earth were those who dreamed up this initiative thinking? And since when did a toad become the expert on crossing the fucking road?
Kids that young being subjected to this is nothing but a sinister and errant waste of time and resources. I have two of about the same age and their eyes glaze over when the news is on, it may as well be broadcast in Greek. Yet Lancashire police think kids who haven't yet reached secondary school are able to accurately identify the surreptitious verbal signals of a potential terrorist?
Expect a host of tip-offs to the police soon, from terrified kids in East Lancs, who believe Joel's mum is a terrorist because one of them heard her say she wanted to bang Kyle's dad.
You couldn't make ... nope, must resist that cliché.
H/T Alex Massie
