Ruminations

Blog dedicated primarily to randomly selected news items; comments reflecting personal perceptions

Friday, March 26, 2010

Bloody Idiocy

Manor primary school in Melksham Wiltshire, has a truly peculiar idea of how best to care for the young children in its care.

A five year old student climbed a tree on the school grounds, and once up the tree he obviously could not conceive of how to descend on his own. The school has a truly idiotic policy that if a child climbs a tree he will not be helped down, but rather be placed under 'observation'. On the theory, perhaps, that he will eventually figure out how to clamber down on his own, or he would be miraculously lowered by some higher power.

A woman who was herself the mother of a young child, albeit not one who attended that particular school, saw the boy's plight. She entered the school grounds and helped the child down from the tree. The little boy had been stuck in the tree for 45 minutes. Perhaps the school authorities felt that might represent a kind of disciplinary punishment to cure the boy of his adventurous spirit.

The helpful woman passerby, after coaxing the boy off the tree, delivered him to the school building.

She might possibly have been anticipating that her good-spirited helpfulness would be appreciated and she would be thanked, and be on her way. Such was not the case. For the fact of the matter was, according to the school, the boy was being "observed" by teachers within the building, with instructions not to intervene, should the child therefore become distracted and happen to fall. Hmmm.

The woman later received letters from the Manor primary school, not thanking her, but instead reprimanding her for entering the school grounds without permission. A community support officer also visited her. "I am a mother myself and I find it a bit ridiculous that the school's policy is to leave a child up a tree."

Ah, but this is the school policy, one which prevents staff from going to the aid of children who have climbed trees. "The only danger as far as the school was concerned was that a stranger came onto the premises and talked to the child, who was being observed." This statement from a school spokesperson.

But bloody idiocy can take place anywhere. And right here in Canada, an Edmonton radio host has been informed he could be charged with trespassing and face a fine for daring to enter private property without permission. Evidently a peahen had escaped from its owner. It was on the loose for days, roosting on the rooftops of an Edmonton neighbourhood.

The radio host had managed to secure the bird. "It was pretty calm. We were holding it for awhile, petting it to make sure it wasn't too scared. We knew we had to get it down. We're animal lovers, and we knew it didn't have many chances left", he explained. Nevertheless, Dylan Wowchuk, from The Bounce radio station, faces a $280 fine.

Common sense and a modicum of intelligence appears to be absent from the skill set of too many people; good for light comic relief, but irritatingly, spectacularly stupid.

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