AIBU about school showing this movie

[TGISummer]

DD is in Y8. Yesterday she came home upset saying that her class had watched a horror movie...she can be a bit of a drama llama so asked her what the film was:

The Purge.

BBFC/UK - Rated 15 (strong language, bloody violence).

She's just turned 13. Came home and told my younger DD and DS various graphic details. I asked her why she didn't say anything...she did, the rest of the class said it was fine and she should shut up.

I phoned head of year and (politely) asked why would you do that??!! She seemed surprised and said will get Teacher to call and explain. Felt a bit fobbed off but thought ok, will see what he says. No phone call from Teacher.

DD came home today, they watched another film:

Paranormal activity. Another rating of 15.

Seriously??!!!

I know it's just end of term movie watching but what would you do?

Jeez, you wouldnt even be able to have taken your child to the cinema to see that. Its illegal.

I tried to take my 13 year old to see suicide squad and was refused entry , so embarrasing.

Gosh, I've only just watched The Purge (and sequel) very recently. It's grim viewing for an adult, let alone a young teen. I can see it could lead to quite an informed moral/philosophical debate, about the premise behind it, with much older teens, but not 14 year olds.

Good luck, OP, I'd have complained too.

Going off at a tangent, I am so old that when I was at school it wasn't possible to watch films, so we (brace yourselves) worked right up to the last minute of term! I will concede we probably weren't working flat out in the last lesson of the year, and teachers back then worked less hard than they do now, because there was a lot less pointless paperwork. Nowadays I expect they are knackered by the end of term.

We watched schools TV at primary school. It meant going into the hall a few minutes before the broadcast was due to begin. Two strong adults would wheel out an enormous TV on a stand on wheels. Then there was a lot of anxious fiddling about with the controls. Then we watched an earnest 20-minute programme. Then we trooped back to the classroom. Happy days!

When I was in the first year (what’s now yr 7) there were loads of half day teacher strikes so our group of friends used to go round to each other’s houses and watch 18 rated horror films - nightmare on elm street, robocop, terminator etc and we found them hilarious and brilliant.

I’m not sure it should happen at school but it’s no big deal really, a bit of an overreaction.

I am furious on your behalf. I am also a school governor and if something like this were happening at "my" school I would wish to know. Please write to them - this is wholly out of order and the teacher should be disciplined over this.

Really bad. I would phone the school in the morning unless you've already broken up for summer. If that's the case, phone at start of new term or email them now.

Our primary is only allowed to show U certificate films as even PG needs “parental guidance” ie parents consent.
They have broken the law. I’d report them.

No one has broken any law @FairyFlake45. The age restriction only applies to buying the film or watching it in a cinema. It's not illegal to show it to someone 'underage' at home or in a school. Many schools show overage films for educational purposes.

I think the rating is less of an issue than the content here.

@Sunshades - yes, I’d agree a lot of 13 year olds have seen a 15 rated film, but that doesn’t mean they’ve seen a 15 rated horror/psychological thriller/gore fest.

Also - emotionally immature if they don’t want/can’t handle watching it? So, you’re a bully - you don’t fit with what I think, so the problem must lie with you? I didn’t like horror films as a teenager and don’t like them now as an adult - doesn’t make me ‘emotionally immature’, it’s just a preference.

If your husband ‘Head Teacher’ (and I use that in brackets, because I’ve worked in education for a long time, with some completely shit SLTs, but even they weren’t as bad as you portray your husband to be, leading me to believe he isn’t a HT at all) tried to get me to agree to a managed move because I complained that my child was watching a film that was inappropriate due to its content, I would be contacting the chair of governors and either the LEA or Academy Trust to complain because - guess what - that’s bullying too.

OP - this needs addressing, and you’re right to put in a formal complaint. The ‘don’t tell your parents’ is a safeguarding risk, another thing to be addressed. It was an attempt to look cool to these children and was wildly inappropriate. I hope you get a satisfactory response to your complaint.

I'd have gone nuts!! There are some children who would not have been mentally or emotional mature enough to handle that!

OP please do return and let us know the school’s response to your complaint

STRONGLY COMPLAIN!

Of all people following the age guidance rules, schools should be the strictest! I very much doubt school would stay quiet if your child went in one day and loudly told her friends she’d been playing GTA and had bought a lap dancing club where the workers all had their titties out on display.

You'd be right to complain. Certificates are there for a reason. 13 year olds wouldn't be able to see a 15 at a cinema and there they would at least be making a conscious decision to see it.

Except for screenings in commercial cinemas and the age requirement to purchase or borrow a film, the '15' certificate is for guidance only. It may be inappropriate to show a '15' film to 13-year-olds, but it is not illegal. It could also be inappropriate to show '15' films to 16-year-olds.
It was mentioned briefly on page 5 that it is illegal to show films (and recorded TV programmes) in schools for entertainment purposes unless the school has purchased a ‘non-theatrical’ film licence. Only showings of curriculum based educational films are exempt. Whilst this is true, the government has block licences that cover films for (free) entertainment in all state-funded schools (in England), and also licences to cover recorded music, sheet music, hymns, books, newspapers and magazines etc. I don't know the position in the other UK countries.

I would be furious films are rated for a reason

Hi.well the school broke the law. Report them to the police and bbfc/British film board. Cinemas use their license and get big fines if caught. And social services it’s a safe guarding issue too!

Loose their license not use.

The school also broke the law by publicly showing a film sold for home viewing only. It’s essentially theft.

I have 2 in secondary, and if they show a film to the 'wrong' age, even if it is only a clip, they always inform parents something like this:

You son in year 8 will be watching part of XXX film in English this term. We are advising parents as this is rated a 15. We feel the film is appropriate to the curriculum content, and will be part of our class discussion.
if you have any objections or questions please contact YYYY.

The school will never, on principle show a film that is 'over age' to children below that age, without informing parents. It makes not a jot of difference what the film is or how happy the rest of the class is, as a matter of principle, they inform parents, in order to allow them to pull out.

I think @Sunshades is a fantasist.... I doubt, in real life, there is a husband or any dc and the comments made are purely trolling. They are certainly not interesting, informative or helpful. Ignore them.

And OP. ... Complain to the board of governors and the head. These films were not for educational purposes (even then they send a letter to parents if the film due to be shown is a certificate higher than the age of the children, like Schindler’s List). What people let thier kids watch at home is up to them but it’s totally irresponsible and completely unacceptable for a school.

The bbfc guidance for teachers is:

Merely showing an age-restricted film to underaged persons - or allowing them to see one outside a licensed cinema - is not in itself an offence.
We would, however, strongly discourage such a practice unless (a) the children in question are only a year or so below the age stated on the certificate, and (b) there is a serious educational purpose to showing the recording (eg showing well-known works or educational films such as 15-rated Schindler's List to 14-year-old GCSE students). Even in such cases, schools should seek parental consent prior to showing the film. We would also recommend obtaining the approval of the Head Teacher and Governors. It is vital to make sure that any children watching are not likely to suffer any ill effects as a result of seeing the film.

This is awful. It sounds like she had no choice but to sit through the film. I know I wouldn’t have been brave enough to speak up or leave the room in front of all my friends at that age.

I hope the school takes this seriously and you get a proper response.

@Sunshades, is your DH a headteacher of a school in the UK?

syskywalker - it’s not illegal. Stupid, yes, but not illegal on either of the grounds you think it is.

I'm another teacher who thinks this is completely unacceptable.

I've shown my dd films at home that had age ratings that were above her age (generally comedies such as The Full Monty or Life of Brian which she saw as a pre-teen and which are both 15s), but would never have let her watch violent films or horror films when she was young - I know that she would have found them too upsetting. Even now there are films and tv shows which I enjoy, and which are rated as suitable, but which I think would be too much for her.

As other posters have said it's one thing for a parent who knows their own child to make a decision about what would be suitable for viewing for that child - at home, watching with an adult, with the off-switch nearby if needed.
It's a completely different situation for a teacher to show a violent or scary film, with no educational merit or link to the curriculum, without parental consent and with no way of children who are upset being able to avoid watching the film.

I was seriously unimpressed when my dd said that 2 teachers let her class watch films in the last week of term, logged into their Netflix accounts and then let the class choose what to watch.
In each case the majority of children chose 15 certificate films which she described as "scary". I have to admit to having forgotten the names of both films, but when she described the plots they sounded vaguely familiar (I haven't seen either, but read a lot of film reviews).

dd has just finished year 10 so virtually all the children will be 15. I still think it was lazy and irresponsible to give the classes carte blanche to choose any film and I didn't think they sounded suitable, but as most children were 15 and dd wasn't upset I won't be complaining.
If they'd seen the same films 2 years ago when she was only 13 I would have been furious and would certainly have been emailing the school.