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Philip Pullman and Quentin Blake refuse paedophile vetting
Top names in children’s literature will stop visiting schools to avoid signing on to 'insulting' database scheme
A group of the most famous names in current children's literature, including the writers Philip Pullman and Michael Morpurgo and the illustrator Quentin Blake, have said that they will stop visiting schools in protest against a government vetting scheme aimed at rooting out paedophiles. They are refusing to comply because the scheme assumes their guilt.
The so-called Vetting and Barring Scheme demands that anyone working with children in schools must sign on to a database from October. Because the writers and artists occasionally visit schools to give talks about their books, they too will be required to sign on.
But as Pullman put it: "Children have never been in any danger from visiting authors or illustrators, and the idea that they should be is preposterous."
Speaking to the Oxford Mail, Pullman, a father-of-two and former schoolteacher, whose trilogy His Dark Materials is a worldwide bestseller, said: "I shall have nothing to do with any such clearance and in consequence, I suppose, I shall never be allowed into a school again.
"I shall regret that very much, but I refuse to be complicit in any measure that assumes my guilt. The proposal deserves nothing but contempt."
Pullman added that the "crowning insult" was the £64 fee for signing on to the database. Less fortunate authors who depend on giving school talks for part of their income would now have to pay up "to clear their name from something they haven't done".
OTHER REFUSENIKS:
♦ Anne Fine, former Children's Laureate and author of more than 50 books: "Our children will become further impoverished by this tiresome and ill-considered scheme, and yet another gulf will be created between young people and the rest of society."
♦ Michael Morpurgo, former Children's Laureate and author of War Horse: "Writers don't go into schools for the money, they do it because they want to bring their stories to children and make readers of them. The notion that I should somehow have got myself tested or passed in order to do this is absurd."
♦ Quentin Blake, illustrator of Roald Dahl's books and the first ever Children's Laureate: "A lot of these people are asked to visit schools because they are known already. You don't ask Philip Pullman or Michael Morpurgo because you don't know who they are, and you don't go to the trouble of being the Children's Laureate to pay £64 to have permission to talk to children. That is bizarre."
♦ Anthony Horowitz, author of the Alex Rider spy novels: "A child who admires a writer has a great belief in that writer as a good human being. If you say that, actually, the guy who's writing this book could be a sick pervert and we've got to protect you from him, I think you're not exactly sending out the most positive message." ·
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My sympathy is with Mr Pullman. Whilst one can accept that individuals working with children on a regular basis who have the opportunity to 'groom' them should be checked; I think it is nonsense to insist that occasional visitors to schools who are not left alone with children should be treated in this way. What if all those politicians who love to visit schools and promote their policies by being filmed with children were to receive the same treatment.
these writers do not "work" with children and are not in day to day contact with them. their contribution to the enlightenment and enjoyment of children should be recognised and they should not be subject to this nonsense.
If people want to work with children and there are procedures just like a bus driver needs a special license then they have to accept that.
The fee really is the biggest insult of all.
ann27hay: I think we can give Mr Pullman a little more credit than to think he is the first person ever to have had to be vetted. Since these people are millionaires, I rather suspect it is more the principle of assumed guilt they are protesting about than the 64 pound fee. If their protest results in poor students not having to pay to prove they aren't paedophiles, then great.
Whilst I sympathize with Mr Pullman, I do wonder if he has heard that any student who wishes to study childcare have to pay to have their record investigated and issued with a certificate if they pass? His indignation that writers have to pay a fee of £64 is a little ridiculous considering everybody who works with children or hopes to work with children already pay a fee. Been there, done that, daughter got the teeshirt.