[ShepherdsDog]

$1:

A graphic video shown to a class of Grade 7 students has angered a Winnipeg man who called it inappropriate, gratuitously violent and horrific.

Alan DeBaets said his son, who was in the class, was "so disturbed and emotionally unequipped to view such horrific video that he had a medical emergency in class and blacked out."

"The target audience is impressionable 12- and 13-year-old children. At 42 years old, I can hardly stomach the contents," he said in an email sent to CBC News.

"We were absolutely shocked this would somehow be shown to the school, especially without any sort of permission," he added in an interview.

The 19-minute video, titled Love is all you need? is set in a homosexual society where heterosexual people are denounced and bullied and referred to as "breeders."

It shows a teen girl driven to suicide after trying to have a relationship with a boy. She is beaten and branded with the word "Hetero" on her forehead before she goes home and cuts her wrists in a bathtub.
Teacher apologizes

The video was shown by a health teacher in the Louis Riel School Division.

The teacher has since written an email to DeBaets and apologized.

"In discussion with administration, I realize that I made a mistake in showing this. If you have any further questions, please let me know," she stated in her email.

"I sincerely apologize for the mistakes I made and please know that in the future they will not happen again."

But that's not good enough for DeBaets, who is unhappy the teacher is still working with students.

"This misconduct makes previous teacher scandals in Manitoba seem pale by comparison," he wrote.

"The school system is trying to brush this under the rug. The teacher who showed this video is working today without any reprimand."
Praise for video

Chad Smith, executive director of the Rainbow Resource Centre, on the other hand, praised the video as "a wonderful teaching tool."

"I think it does a wonderful job of turning [the issue] around. Straight kids are gonna identify with the main character; they're going to see the world from a different perspective," he said.

"It's a wonderful tool for developing some empathy and putting yourself in other people's shoes."

Smith wasn't sure he would want to show the video to a Grade 3 or Grade 4 class but certainly has no problem with junior high school students watching it.

"We see kids that are harassed, who cut and self-harm themselves and that have suicidal tendencies. And they're not finding support in schools," he said.

"These are our kids in the video."

video in question is a little silly. The premise that a modern society developed where the overwhelming majority engaged in homosexuality isn't believable.... the hateful behaviour however is.

[BartSimpson]

Yep, keep pushing those boundaries.

[peck420]

Lol, I wonder if the Rainbow Resource Centre has any concept of what junior high students would talk about after watching this film?

I can guarantee you it won't be about bullying, homosexual tolerance, etc, etc.

It will be, "did you see her cut her wrists...what a _________(term of choice)"

IMHO, the film looses all of its message from the 16 minute mark on.

[raydan]

I don't get the fuss except that maybe the audience was a year or 2 too young.

[stratos]

The farther is right to be upset, teen suicide is a horrid thing let alone to show it in a class room and say ohhh its about role reversal for gays.

$1:

"We see kids that are harassed, who cut and self-harm themselves and that have suicidal tendencies. And they're not finding support in schools," he said.

This is not a gay/lesbian problem, strait teens and adults have this problem also. A persons sexuality has no bearing on if he/she is a cutter, commits suicide, or any other form of self harm.

[ShepherdsDog]

raydan raydan:

I don't get the fuss except that maybe the audience was a year or 2 too young.

My wife is expected to teach her Kindergarten students the words vulva and vagina.

[Thanos]

Odds are the kids have been watching movies and playing video games where the death scenes are about a thousand times more gruesome than what was shown in the anti-bullying film. I remember some of those films from school though too. They were usually about as subtle as a flying mallet to the genitals and about as intellectually deep as the low end of a swimming pool. Leave it to a school administration to approach a problem in the most ham-fisted manner possible and then self-congratulate themselves on what a bang-up job they're doing for the cause. Want to do something real about bullying? How about kicking the troublemakers out of school altogether and not letting them back in ever again? That'd be about a trillion times more effective than any of these stupid films are.

[Zipperfish]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

raydan raydan:

I don't get the fuss except that maybe the audience was a year or 2 too young.

My wife is expected to teach her Kindergarten students the words vulva and vagina.

Should throw in pudendum. Oh--and ethiopian tube.

[Robair]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

raydan raydan:

I don't get the fuss except that maybe the audience was a year or 2 too young.

My wife is expected to teach her Kindergarten students the words vulva and vagina.

WTF is wrong with peepee?

[Thanos]

Don't forget the scientific terms whatsis and hoo-hah.

[saturn_656]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

raydan raydan:

I don't get the fuss except that maybe the audience was a year or 2 too young.

My wife is expected to teach her Kindergarten students the words vulva and vagina.

It's expressly stated in the curriculum?

[BartSimpson]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

Should throw in pudendum. Oh--and ethiopian tube.

I had my Ethiopian tube removed a long time ago. It kept getting clogged up with all those damned Ethiopians!

[raydan]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

raydan raydan:

I don't get the fuss except that maybe the audience was a year or 2 too young.

My wife is expected to teach her Kindergarten students the words vulva and vagina.

My granddaughter was 3 and I was babysitting her. She was in the bath and asked me if she had to wash her vulva. Shocked the hell out of me.

[BartSimpson]

raydan raydan:

My granddaughter was 3 and I was babysitting her. She was in the bath and asked me if she had to wash her vulva. Shocked the hell out of me.

She may have been referring to her Volvo.

[ShepherdsDog]

Thanos Thanos:

Odds are the kids have been watching movies and playing video games where the death scenes are about a thousand times more gruesome than what was shown in the anti-bullying film. I remember some of those films from school though too. They were usually about as subtle as a flying mallet to the genitals and about as intellectually deep as the low end of a swimming pool. Leave it to a school administration to approach a problem in the most ham-fisted manner possible and then self-congratulate themselves on what a bang-up job they're doing for the cause. Want to do something real about bullying? How about kicking the troublemakers out of school altogether and not letting them back in ever again? That'd be about a trillion times more effective than any of these stupid films are.

That's about it. The anti bullying events they have at school are as useless as tits on a boar. To the kids all it is is a time away from class where they get to see some skits and get a t shirt.