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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Teacher showing photos of dead people! Surely this is a bit too much!?

77 replies

Memoo · 12/01/2011 15:39

Ds is in year 5 and in geography the class has been learning about tsunamis and other natural disasters. The teacher showed them a video and some photos but two of the photos were of dead people. From the way DS described it to me it sounds as if the photos were close ups. Am I being a bit over sensitive or is this is bit off? I don?t want to wrap ds in cotton wool but I think showing 9 and 10 year olds photos of dead bodies is a step too far.

OP posts:
bumpandfedup · 12/01/2011 15:40

I would be livid, that would give me nightmares.

Maybe ask for an appointment with the teacher and ask to see the same photos that were shown so you can see for yourself first?

expatinscotland · 12/01/2011 15:41

That's not on.

LindyHemming · 12/01/2011 15:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
Memoo · 12/01/2011 15:42

Glad its not just me, dont trust my judgement at the moment!

OP posts:
Mrsfluff · 12/01/2011 15:45

I have to confess I wouldn't have a problem with it. Was your son upset?

tigitigi · 12/01/2011 15:47

I wouldn't have a problem with it - kids of a similar age lived through it and will have to cope. I saw dead bodies as a kid and it never harmed me.

Sidge · 12/01/2011 15:48

I would clarify what the pictures actually were before I went in all guns blazing.

If they were distance shots of the disaster area including dead people then I think that's acceptable - hard to sanitise a national disaster really.

But there is no need for gratuitous pictures.

EdgarAleNPie · 12/01/2011 15:49

agree sidge - anything that could equally have been shown on the News would be ok.

Pfaffingabout · 12/01/2011 15:50

Sorry, don't think it's a big deal.

ScotlandR · 12/01/2011 15:50

I used to work for a v.v. large international aid company charity, and my dc knows all about the horrible things that happen across the world, mostly because the people in charge are too lazy or too greedy to help.

the images were probably a bit shocking, but not graphic or disturbing, and quite frankly I applaud your DCs teacher for showing them how scary and horrible the world is from a safe environment where they can feel empowered to do something (even if that 'something' is recycling their used-up bits of drawing paper)

YABU unless the images were actually graphic, disturbing or otherwise inappropriate. dead people look just like alive people.

ivykaty44 · 12/01/2011 15:52

My dd aged 6 wanted to see my mum when she died and she came to the chapel of rest.

To much taboo with dead bodies isn't healthy and can cause a lot more problems, respect for dead bodies as they where once alive is needed.

It wouldn't have worried me if either of my dc had seen something similar to this

valiumredhead · 12/01/2011 15:52

What Sidge said - check the facts first. It's not something I would be happy about.

Original poster
Memoo · 12/01/2011 15:54

I have phone the school and the teacher is going to call me back after their staff meeting.

I am going to be calm about it, will clarify exactly what was shown first.

DS is upset about it. Having questioned him a little more it seems that the photos were of victims of the tsunami lying dead on the beach.

OP posts:
ILoveItWhenYouCallMeBoo · 12/01/2011 15:54

not a big deal. death is part of life and to protect them from it will only delay them coming to terms with it. use this as an opportunity to talk about it and settle any worries or question they might have. death doesn't have to be scary you know. it's all about how you deal with it.

hobnobsaremyfavourite · 12/01/2011 15:56

My DS's (aged 11, 7 and 4) visited a very dear friend of the family just days before he died. At the time he was unconscious (sp) and very peaceful. They all knew he was dying and they all said their goodbyes. Shortly after he died DS 1 asked to see him and say goodbye again. I let him and it was a very touching, quiet and loving farewell from DS to his friend. Death is part of life and it's a shame we treat it as such a taboo and fearful thing. OP would you have objected to photos/film of childbirth? It's all part of the cycle of life.

faverolles · 12/01/2011 16:00

I remember seeing pictures like this when I was a similar age, in school books (pictures of Vietnam and stuff like that)
It was upsetting to see, but things like this happen in RL, and like someone said before, after any disaster, there is footage on the news that is just as upsetting.

hellymelly · 12/01/2011 16:02

I think seeing a much loved relative dying,or just dead,is very different from pictures of random dead people killed in a disaster.I would be most unhappy at my dcs being shown these.I was in secondary school before I saw a reportage photo of a dead person and I found it very shocking and horrible-not that they were dead,but that they had died so traumatically,that's the difference i think.Death is fine to deal with,but even though I saw them as an adult,the hillsborough disaster photos on the front of newspapers are still in my head,and i wish i had never seen them.

ScotlandR · 12/01/2011 16:02

Bloody hell, I would've objected to photos of childbirth! There's only so much trauma you can inflict!

Seriously, I think childbirth tends to be a lot more graphic and bloody and gross and terrifing (and noisy) than a photo of dead bodies in the wake of a natural disater.

My own CB was only an hour and a half long, but I definitely wouldn't've wanted to view it from another angle Confused

harpsichordcarrier · 12/01/2011 16:03

YABU
I think it's a judgement for the teacher to make, and in context I think this is appropriate. I think it's perfectly appropriate for your DS to be made aware.

Clayhead · 12/01/2011 16:04

I have a 9 year old and this wouldn't bother me personally. She's seen some pictures in the newspaper anyway (things like Haiti).

mutznutz · 12/01/2011 16:05

I wouldn't have a problem with it...unless there was guts and gore everywhere, they're just dead bodies.

AnyFucker · 12/01/2011 16:05

You can see photos of dead people on the early evening news

on the front page of newspapers

I think if handled sensitively, it is ok and I wouldn't have an objection to it

ChickensAreFlyingUnderTheRadar · 12/01/2011 16:07

Unless they were close up shots of hideous injuries etc, I wouldn't complain personally. Pictures of bodies on a beach or similair are just very sad, and real, images of this kind of disaster.

Blu · 12/01/2011 16:09

I would guess that Yr 5 children are ware of the news and it is not turned off if they are in the room?
That Yr 5 children have already studied the Egyptians, possibly with a visit to the British museum and seen a mummy, or at least studied the somewhat gruesome mummification process?
That the teacher was not showing close ups of bodies ona gratuitous sensationalist way which fosussed on the bosies rather than the wider disaster?

Bodies are siply the bodies of people who have died. I would rather DS saw factual footage in an educational context than endless fictional deaths in the interests of entertainment and exciting films.

hobnobsaremyfavourite · 12/01/2011 16:10

I agree with AnyFucker (been wanting to say that for ages Grin)

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