Suicide video shown at Winnipeg school enrages dad
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.
The video was shown by Tara Law, a health teacher in the Louis Riel School Division.
Law 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 Law 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."
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."
