Drama school sex project broke education rules
Stockholm's Dramatiska Institutet broke a range of further education regulations rules when it ran an arts project in which a group of 6 year old pupils were exposed to pornographic material read from a novel.
The National Agency for Higher Education has delivered its report on the "school porn scandal" which erupted in January this year and its criticism of DI (the University College of Film, Radio, Television and Theatre) is damning.
The children had been invited to participate as the audience in the project, entitled "Love & Sexuality". They were filmed as they provided feedback on the students' work.
While the accompanying teacher was out of the room, a male student from DI read from a text which graphically depicted "two small girls" having oral sex while a woman watched.
Re-entering the room, the children's teacher interrupted proceedings as soon as she heard what was going on - some 5-7 minutes after the reading had begun.
According to the National Agency for Higher Education, DI had not asked parents' permission before filming the children. Nor had there been any analysis of the potential effects on the children of such a controversial topic - as is required by the UN's convention on the rights of the child.
Before the children's participation in the project, DI sent a letter to schools explaining the theme and stating that experts from Save the Children would be present in the classrooms - which they were not.
The agency described as "noteworthy" the fact that DI had not given schools an accurate description of the conditions under which the project would be run.
"My hope is that the National Agency for Higher Education's thorough investigation and proposals will be a great help to Dramatiska Institutet's continued work and will minimise the risk of anything like this happening again," wrote Sigbrit Franke, the head of the agency, in a press release.
DI has until September 30th to provide a response to the report, including an explanation of how the failings will be dealt with.
Astrid Assefa, the chairwoman of DI's board, told Dagens Nyheter that even an arts school must have routines which provide suitable protection.
"At the same time, you can't allow for the fact that someone might overstep the mark," she said.
No action has been taken against the student who read the pornographic text.
Sources: Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, SR
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The National Agency for Higher Education has delivered its report on the "school porn scandal" which erupted in January this year and its criticism of DI (the University College of Film, Radio, Television and Theatre) is damning.
The children had been invited to participate as the audience in the project, entitled "Love & Sexuality". They were filmed as they provided feedback on the students' work.
While the accompanying teacher was out of the room, a male student from DI read from a text which graphically depicted "two small girls" having oral sex while a woman watched.
Re-entering the room, the children's teacher interrupted proceedings as soon as she heard what was going on - some 5-7 minutes after the reading had begun.
According to the National Agency for Higher Education, DI had not asked parents' permission before filming the children. Nor had there been any analysis of the potential effects on the children of such a controversial topic - as is required by the UN's convention on the rights of the child.
Before the children's participation in the project, DI sent a letter to schools explaining the theme and stating that experts from Save the Children would be present in the classrooms - which they were not.
The agency described as "noteworthy" the fact that DI had not given schools an accurate description of the conditions under which the project would be run.
"My hope is that the National Agency for Higher Education's thorough investigation and proposals will be a great help to Dramatiska Institutet's continued work and will minimise the risk of anything like this happening again," wrote Sigbrit Franke, the head of the agency, in a press release.
DI has until September 30th to provide a response to the report, including an explanation of how the failings will be dealt with.
Astrid Assefa, the chairwoman of DI's board, told Dagens Nyheter that even an arts school must have routines which provide suitable protection.
"At the same time, you can't allow for the fact that someone might overstep the mark," she said.
No action has been taken against the student who read the pornographic text.
Sources: Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, SR
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