A Florida parent has complained after a teacher accidentally showed their Fourth Grade class the horror movie Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey.
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On October 2, pupils at the Academy Of Innovative Education in Miami, aged between nine and ten years old, were reportedly shown 20-30 minutes of the horror, according to parent Michelle Diaz.
Speaking to CBS News Miami, Diaz added that while this particular movie was the students’ choice, it wasn’t there responsibility to pick, saying, “It’s not for them to decide what they want. It’s up to the professor to look at the content.”
The 2023 horror movie, while unrated, contains images of gore, torture scenes, swearing and some nudity. The film follows the characters of the classic children’s story embarking on a murderous rampage after being abandoned by Christopher Robin.
Diaz also claimed the kids tried to put a stop to it after watching some of the film, but were ignored. She told CBS News, “He didn’t stop the movie, even though the kids were saying, ‘Hey, stop the movie, we don’t want to watch this.’”
The school’s headteacher, Vera Hirsh, told UNILAD, “Last week, a video was mistakenly shown by a teacher during indoor lunch. Only the first 20 minutes of the movie were played. During those first 20 minutes, there was a scary scene that was shown. At that point, the teacher turned off the video.”
She added, “Parents were reassured that the school has followed all school district policies and procedures in response to the incident and will continue to support the students’ safety and well-being on a daily basis.”
However, Diaz doesn’t seem reassured by the headteacher’s efforts. After leaving a meeting with the principal, she said, “I feel completely abandoned by the school.”
Hirsh continues to deny that the pupils were shown any violence, telling the Miami New Times that most of the “grisly murder scenes take place later in the movie.” She has concluded that the school is “actively monitoring” its students, and had arranged for a mental health counsellor to meet with those affected by the film.