Compensation Culture
What is the world coming to? Spotted in the paper this news item:-
Jessica Turner, 12, of Chicago is demanding £250,000 in compensation after a teacher showed the “gay romance” Brokeback Mountain to her class.
Jessica said she suffered “psychological distress” after seeing the film. Her grandfather and guardian, Kenneth Richardson said “I had complained before about curse words in books but this was the last straw."
Now I’m sorry, but what a load of nonsense. I admit to not actually having seen the film, but having seen this news item I really wish I had. So the “curse words” in this film are very much worse than the words she must hear (and let’s not beat about the bush, probably uses herself) in the playground every day? I don’t know any 12 year olds who wouldn’t want to see a film with some swearing in it. They’d be raving about it for weeks afterwards (as well as repeating all the words concerned.)
I fail to see that a film which won three Oscars could cause “psychological distress”. A film about love, longing and ultimate despair. OK some of this may have gone over the heads of some schoolchildren but psychological distress is unlikely.
Apart from anything else, what is a 12 year old going to do with £250,000? Now I admit that I’m not the best with figures but when I was that age I wouldn’t have had any concept of how much £250,000 was. She’ll get through a lot of McFly CDs with that sort of money. Unless McFly CDs contain too many curse words for her delicate constitution.
Of course it’s not quite as simple as that. Jessica is suing the Chicago Board of Education jointly with her grandfather and I’m sure he has a very clear concept of what £250,000 means. Me, cynical? Never.
Sadly they’ll probably win, and when they do, and little innocent Jessica jumps in the air and says “Shit” or something similar, I hope that the Chicago Board of Education are taking note.
Jessica Turner, 12, of Chicago is demanding £250,000 in compensation after a teacher showed the “gay romance” Brokeback Mountain to her class.
Jessica said she suffered “psychological distress” after seeing the film. Her grandfather and guardian, Kenneth Richardson said “I had complained before about curse words in books but this was the last straw."
Now I’m sorry, but what a load of nonsense. I admit to not actually having seen the film, but having seen this news item I really wish I had. So the “curse words” in this film are very much worse than the words she must hear (and let’s not beat about the bush, probably uses herself) in the playground every day? I don’t know any 12 year olds who wouldn’t want to see a film with some swearing in it. They’d be raving about it for weeks afterwards (as well as repeating all the words concerned.)
I fail to see that a film which won three Oscars could cause “psychological distress”. A film about love, longing and ultimate despair. OK some of this may have gone over the heads of some schoolchildren but psychological distress is unlikely.
Apart from anything else, what is a 12 year old going to do with £250,000? Now I admit that I’m not the best with figures but when I was that age I wouldn’t have had any concept of how much £250,000 was. She’ll get through a lot of McFly CDs with that sort of money. Unless McFly CDs contain too many curse words for her delicate constitution.
Of course it’s not quite as simple as that. Jessica is suing the Chicago Board of Education jointly with her grandfather and I’m sure he has a very clear concept of what £250,000 means. Me, cynical? Never.
Sadly they’ll probably win, and when they do, and little innocent Jessica jumps in the air and says “Shit” or something similar, I hope that the Chicago Board of Education are taking note.
11 comments:
Gwen, thanks for your comment on GreatSheElephant. There are two single Glaswegian men on my blogroll - Stellblog and The Ill Man. check 'em out!
Oh btw - I've read discussions about this on US chat boards and the prevailing view was that it would be fine for 15-16 year olds but not 12 year olds. Maybe they are less mature in the US? The average UK 12 year old scares me shitless.
Thanks GSE for your blog recommendations. I certainly will check them out.
I do voluntary work with 12 - 16 year olds and believe you me, if you have ever been in a room with 20 screaming teenagers that would give you psychological distress and no mistake.
Crikey- 12 year olds scare the hell out of me. They probably got more of what was going on in that movie than I did. Distress my arse! It should also be pointed out that, in the states, kids can drive at 16...maybe she needed the $250,000 for a car?
Now your theory about the car is very possible, Kelly. It really wouldn't surprise me. I really can't believe that this so called case has even got this far. It's ludicrous.
I wasn't aware of this story, but heaved a tiny, temporary sigh of relief that it happened in the batty ol' USA rather than here. Of course, all this REALLY means is that the precedent is set for some avaricious opportunist to do the same over here in a couple of years' time. These US trends are always keenly imported.
As for the uncommonly fragile Jessica, who'd like to bet against 'compensation' being spent on breast implants, if not stomach-stapling, by the time she's sixteen?
Oh dear ISBW I really hope that this sort of thing doesn't happen over here, but as you say the UK does seem to feel the need to copy the USA at every turn.
As for Jessica - yes I can quite see breast implants, stomach stapling and then probably a "pop career" just for good measure.
I fear it's coming Gwen. After all you didn't have tv and radio ads for plasic surgery a couple of years back. Now they're all over!
There's no comments option on your latest post (you may need to repost it), so I'll take the opportunity to call Scots people 'dour' here, before I scoot off to Yorkshire to hide..
Have a good weekend!
Thanks for letting me know about the comments. I have now enabled them. Very naughty of them to hide. They have been suitably reprimanded.
I think you might be right about that sort of thing coming over here. Very sad. Plastic surgery is scary enough.
Scots people do certainly have rather a dour reputation. One which Gordon Brown does nothing to diminish wouldn't you say?
Have fun in Yorkshire and a good weekend!!
This is very typical of America. We love to sue people. In fact, I heard about a story where a guy got drunk, passed out on subway tracks, then tried to sue the subway company when he got hit.
Somehow that doesn't surprise me in the least Katie.
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