[LINK] Britain vetting visiting authors

[Jan Whitaker]

[add to the list of unintended consequences --- or throwing out babies]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/authors-boycott-schools-over-sexoffence-register-1748267.html 


Authors boycott schools over sex-offence register

By Chris Green

Thursday, 16 July 2009

Respected British children's authors Anthony 
Horowitz, Philip Pullman and Michael Morpurgo 
object to a new government scheme that requires 
them to register their names on a database in 
case they pose a danger to children

A group of respected British children's authors 
and illustrators will stop visiting schools from 
the start of the next academic year, in protest 
at a new government scheme that requires them to 
register on a database in case they pose a danger to children.

Philip Pullman, Anne Fine, Anthony Horowitz, 
Michael Morpurgo and Quentin Blake all told The 
Independent that they object to having their 
names on the database – which is intended to 
protect children from paedophiles – and would not 
be visiting any schools as a consequence.

Pullman, author of the fantasy trilogy His Dark 
Materials, described the Home Office policy as 
"corrosive and poisonous to every kind of healthy 
social interaction". He said: "I've been going 
into schools as an author for 20 years, and on no 
occasion have I ever been alone with a child. The 
idea that I have become more of a threat and I 
need to be vetted is both ludicrous and 
insulting. Children have never been in any danger 
from visiting authors or illustrators, and the 
idea that they should be is preposterous.
[snip]


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the 
world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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