Why Phillip Pullman is wrong
July 20, 2009
Posted by:Jonathan Wheeler
I heard on Radio 4 this week that writers, artists and other creative types who visit schools (no doubt to promote their work to captive audiences) are up in arms about having to submit to a Criminal Records Bureau check. The lead voice in all of this is Phillip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials opus. He complains it's degrading and marks him out as a potential paedophile. He cannot be unaware however of the scandals involving child abuse in this country; the CRB system was implemented in the wake of Ian Huntley's conviction. Whilst I agree that the CRB checking system is limited in its scope for catching child abusers, schools should be doing all they can to protect their pupils and Pullman's threat to pull out of school visits should not deter them from fulfilling their duty of care to their charges.