To think it was Wilkinson's own fault that one of their shops was set alight by a work experience girl.

[IamHelenaJustina]

Daily Telegraph link here Basically bored 15 yr old was left alone to stack shelves and set fire to cardboard to get out of it. Causing HUGE blaze and thankfully no injuries or loss of life. Obviously she is entirely responsible for the stupid and dangerous action and has been prosecuted accordingly.

BUT a part of me wonders what the heck the store staff were playing at. Work experience is not free labour. She should have been with staff learning about different roles and not bored out of her mind alone in a stock room. Or AIBU? Is that what work experience is for?

Erm. Most jobs are boring, YABU. She's 15, not 5 tbh, I think she should have a custodial she could have killed someone.

Yes, I meant to say when I made my suggestion about a Saturday job, that she could certainly do it for half pay.

My main worry is that her life will be entirely spoilt by her action and, as she is a child, that is an awful thing.

She could have ended someone's life. Methinks she's never had to take responsibility for her actions ...until now.

That'd be great for other Saturday job applicants:

"Dear Miss Jones,

Thank you for your recent application for a Saturday job in our Nuneaton store.

We received a large number of applications from high-calibre candidates and on this occasion we have decided to give the position to someone who burned the store down last year.

Once again, thank you for your interest and I wish you well in your future career.

Yours sincerely..."

Worra - the same story in the Daily Fail said they had stopped taking WE placements. But that could be wrong of course.

I hesitate to mention this as I'm sure it will enrage you all even more but the lighter she used was when taken from the store.

So shoplifting AND arson in one placement - not really what any employer should be aiming at is it?

Yabu. I remember we 15 years ago. I had a week of nothing but cleaning. I still manage to not set fire to anything!
She should not be given a job, but be volunteering her time!

Shes 15, she's not exactly a child. She's old enough to know not to set fire to things!if it does follow her around it will serve her right.

My mom was in that Wilkinsons when the fire started

Starting fires out of boredom is not normal!!

Girl is a moron. It is not established she is also an unemployable moron.

Wilkinson would only be responsible if they had an Unresponsible Moron detector and refused to use it.

Now, not not

I'm usually very liberal, but I think it's very dangerous to think there's anything reasonable in arson. We're bringing up inattentive
Entitled children who feel they have a right to be entertained at all times. My work experience was a bit shit, at no point did I start a fire.

What an idiot

I was bored out my mind on my work experience. I had no interest in children but was placed in a nursery. Never once did I think it would be a great idea to start a fire to get sent home early. I sucked it up and got on with it

Writer i hope your mom is ok x

Work experience should definitely be supervised. Particularly as the kids are normally brand new to that working environment and have no prior training in the job at all.

I spent a week in a shop owned by an old woman as work experience when I was 15, a week bored out of my mind dusting the shelves and listening to radio four. not once did i consider torching the place.

YAB extremely U.

I think fifteen is a really daft age to do work experience. No hospitals or labs (that I could find) would take you under sixteen. Nurseries and shop work, whilst fine, are not really what you want to spend a week doing if you know you want to do law/science/medicine etc.

God we've all been there, haven't we?

At least she showed some initiative.

(joke)

It doesn't matter that she was bored.
It doesn't matter that their WE program was shit.
It doesn't matter that she wasn't supervised.

She is fifteen not 5. She is entirely responsible and I hope she gets into a massive amount of trouble for it, for her own sake.

If it was that bad why didn't she just throw a sickie?!

.... I did

Yes chippin

Fucking hell.

Would you have felt sorry for her if someone had been killed?

What Chipping said.

And with any luck, she goes back to school and work really hard, having seen what boring jobs she gets if her grades are shit. She has also hopefully learnt not to play with fire.

My first

Fabulassie, you do understand that schools ask businesses to take work experience placements? They are not looking for free labour, it is a lot of hassle for employers (and schools) to arrange this.
If WE is boring maybe some young people will realise that school is interesting in comparison, or that to get a more stimulating job they need to work harder.

If she goes back to school QS, if she's fifteen and gets a custodial sentence chances are she won't be going back to her old school, if she doesn't get custodial I doubt the school will be wanting her back anyway.