to think this is not a suitable place for school to send a 14 yo on work experience

[princessparty]

..an animal testing laboratory !!
He rang me from school this morning to say this is what the school has suggested when he said he wanted to do lab work for work experience.Apparently they have placed students there in the past !
Apart from the obvious upsetting nature of their work,the place is often frequented by animal rights activists who have not only targetted people working there but also employees of any companies doing business with them !!

no more upsetting than a hospital where, gasp, PEOPLE DIE!!!!! More chance of being exposed to violence in a hosptial as well.

If he is not keen he can ask to go somewhere else. If he is happy with the nature of the work (does he want to work in medical research?) then I would let him go.

yanbu
no way would ds have gone there

Students can also do work experience in abattoirs can't they?
It's all legal, and not universally accepted as being a 'bad thing'.
If he doesn't seem upset by it, then I suppose it's down to you and your moral take on animal testing.

If he would find it upsetting then he shouldn't do it, but I don't think the school was at fault for suggesting it. Do you know for certain that workers at this particular lab have been targetted by activists?

From the title I thought it was going to be a pub or a lap-dancing club.

Does this connectsto your DSs future ambitions? Presumbaly it does, if he requested lab work.

For me, the benefits to CVs/focus/guidance/contacts far outweigh the risk with regards to activists.

'Upsetting nature' is neither here nor there. I worked customer services at ntl when I was a teenager. Not that really is 'of an upsetting nature'!

I got sent to a forensics lab for my work experience at 15, but because our school didn't have a uniform and I was v articulate, they thought I was a baby faced uni student and set me to work clearing out their freezer - containing, memorably, a severed hand, a baggie with pieces of hairy scalp in, and several bags of vomit.

I thought it was AWESOME.

But I agree that if your son doesn't want to do this, he should be given a different placement. It could be EXTREMELY interesting though, if he doesn't have moral objections.

My goodness! yes, he shouldn't go there, he may get to learn how many animals died and continue to die so he could have medicines, and all those non organic products he consumes.

It is a risk, definitively, he surely will come back home a vegan and that would give you an inmense amount of extra work and expense.

Btw. i know people who work in 'animal testing'. In practice this means breeding thousands of zebra fish and then watching them swim about . It's not all about chasing white rats with a scalpel and a syringe! In fact, one thing I've noticed from my friends, which could be very educational for your DS to witness, is the huge amount fo red tape and regulation that you have to go through to prove that every animal experiment is valuable, well-planned, can;t be done in vitro, humane etc etc. I'm talking 24hr vet hotline, team of specialist animal lab technicians, forms upon forms, spot checks - the works.

Message withdrawn

isnt work experience now down to the parents to organise....thought it was.

so find him an alternative!

If he is happy to go there them let him go - it will help him make a decision about his future .

If in any doubt about his safety - speak to the school and placement for reassurances .

Surely in this day and age schools do risk assessmenst etc for student placements - they do it for everything else

I did mine at the "halfway home" ward at the hospital, mainly old people with Dementia. Now that was upsetting. Not only did I see and hear some awful things but some of those people had no visitors the whole time I was there. Very sad.

My sister (many years ago) requested for her work experience a placement working with animals. She was offered 2 weeks at the local butchers

LOL at that Boohoomonkey !

Amazingbouncingferret - i used to be a volunteer visiting a patient with dementia
and whatever I tried to chat to her about she would interrupt and ask the same cycle of questions over and over again.Whe I went i don't think she had any idea that i'd been but hopefully on some level it had given her a break from the daily monotony.

Torturing animals is a bit thing for a child to observe

Troll.

Are you a vegan then PP?

why bruxeur??

I would leave it up to your DS to decide. I doubt that the testing facility would make him watch stuff that upset him. Kif is right that there are lots of other things that go on other than injecting animals with stuff.

I understand your concerns about animal rights protesters though, I live quite close to HLS which has had problems in the past although this seems to have calmed down a lot in recent years.

what ??
www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Animal-testing-company-opens-large.1486862.jp

"isnt work experience now down to the parents to organise....thought it was."

It's actually up to the pupil to organize...

So tell him to go organize.

PP is posting in an intentionally inflammatory manner, consistent with the behaviour of a troll.

Thus troll.

I don't mind eating and i would happily go to an abbatoir - in fact have done in the young farmers.
I just think it's an odd place for a school to send kids to.It's own employees are advised not to tell people where they work and the school are sending kids there !

that article is nearly 4yrs old......