Paddington porn: Primary school fails to answer parent questions over pop-up
Parents say they remain mystified as to how their children were shown porn at primary school, despite meeting teachers about the incident.
Croft Academy in Walsall invited parents in to discuss why a ‘deeply inappropriate pornographic pop-up image’ was shown during a showing of Paddington.
They were told it happened due to a failure in their filters and an investigation is under way.
A statement from the school revealed that the pop-up window was closed immediately by a member of staff who then informed the school principal Mark Davis.
But a parent of one of the Year 5 pupils, who are aged nine to 10 and saw the material, claims it was not an image because their child claimed to have heard noise.
The parent told the Express & Star: “We have left with no answers because we were not allowed to ask questions and we were told to turn off our phones.
"Children have said there was noise and that it was a video but we could not find out because we could not ask questions. I want an answer.”
A statement from the school reads: “Croft Academy is a one form entry school in Walsall and part of the Elliot Foundation Academies Trust.
"On Friday 26th January a member of staff was attempting to show an extract from the movie Paddington to children in Year 5 when a deeply inappropriate pornographic pop up image appeared on the screen.
“The member of staff concerned immediately closed the pop up window and reported the incident to the school Principal, Mark Davis.
"The Principal, following the academy’s procedures, informed the Local Authority Designated Officer, parents of the children affected, the academy trust and the school’s IT service provider.
“The school has web content filtering software designed to stop incidents such as this and at present it is unclear why it failed to work on this occasion.
"The school’s IT service provider is conducting a review of the software and devices in the school. Whilst the school is conducting its own review.”
The school added there would be no further comment while investigations were ongoing.
