… after police, forensic scientists and archaeologists ascertained the bones were at least 100 years old – meaning there would be no criminal investigation required – Lucy and Joe Hannigan, 10 and nine, invited their classmates at Our Lady’s, Abingdon, to have a look.
Well, I'm all for classroom innovation! But this sent a bit of a shudder down the spine:
More than 100 pupils got a minibus to the garden last week and were offered the opportunity to handle the remains.
That's a bit
too detached for my liking!
A child in ordinary clothing depicted in a pit of human remains; without respiratory, hand and eye protection? For some reason which has not been made clear, the risk assessment must have concluded hazards and risks were infinitesimal. Which would be very surprising after many studies demonstrate the adverse effects of exposure to pathogens and microscopic fungi which are encountered in these environments.
ReplyDeleteLeg-Iron's opinion may be interesting if it is printable, Julia!
"the bones were at least 100 years old – meaning there would be no criminal investigation required"
ReplyDeleteThat's not to say the person(s) didn't die by the hands of another in a violent act, of course, just that no one is legally obliged to give a shit anymore. Pay attention now, kids, The Law dictates your morals now.
Joe is concerned about people now knowing what his house looks like.
Privacy and respect are just for the living then, kid ? Rightiho.
Joe isn't paying attention.
Tatty - there'd be no point because if it was a murder, the murderer would be dead. Since there were no TV personalities 100 years ago, there'd be nothing to gain by corpse-chasing in this case.
ReplyDeleteMTG - It depends what they died of, to an extent. Some pathogens can form spores that last hundreds of years. Also, even if they passed away peacefully in their sleep, it's still possible for something nasty to have proliferated on the decomposing corpse.
It's also in very bad taste to let children play with corpses. If I had been there I could have stopped this in an instant.
I'd have told the children that in the old days, everybody smoked so they were definitely handling smoker bones.
It's the one thing guaranteed to scare children away from anything. I'll never tire of watching the terror spread across their grubby little faces.
Hey, ASH made me into a monster. I might as well enjoy myself.
Leg-iron - With respect...love yer blog...you missed my point. That there's clearly a difference between giving a shit and being legally obliged to but that one dictates the other here.
ReplyDeletePolice don't care so why should they ? Right ? Well no, I don't think Law should be the only dictator of Morals. Bizarre, to me, that it increasingly appears to be.
Oh and with regard to smokers and smoking, too ! ;)
"Which would be very surprising after many studies demonstrate the adverse effects of exposure to pathogens..."
ReplyDeleteAnd didn't they discover a Black Plague pit in London just this week?
"That's not to say the person(s) didn't die by the hands of another in a violent act, of course..."
If there was a smidgen of child abuse, no doubt the police would have been on it regardless...
"If I had been there I could have stopped this in an instant.
I'd have told the children that in the old days, everybody smoked so they were definitely handling smoker bones."
*chuckles* What's cooler to kids, corpses or The Forbidden Weed?
ReplyDelete"If there was a smidgen of child abuse, no doubt the police would have been on it regardless..."
Julia, you beat me to it. It's as well it wasn't an ancestor of Jimmy Savile's. Mind you, they might well try to prove it was so that hundreds of "victims" can crawl out of the woodwork with their hands out.
"that hundreds of "victims" can crawl out of the woodwork with their hands out."
ReplyDelete@The Jannie.
Care to explain?
Feral.
Anonymous :
ReplyDeleteThere's not a lot to explain. The professionally offended, the professional victim and other compensation seekers who are products of today's spineless ambulance-chasing culture seem to spring up wherever there's a likely pot of cash. A study of the Savile saga should provide enough evidence of this to satisfy even the kindest enquirer.