The words she read in her son’s homework left the mother of 14-year-old Wesley ,Vicki Walker, numb with shock.
In a letter which began ‘Dear mum’, Wesley assured his mother he loved her, made a request for bright colours at his funeral, and listed who should inherit his most prized possessions. She immediately ran to his room to check up on him and found him sleeping safely.
The incident, which came about like this…..
1. Wesley shows his homework to his parents before going to be each night, for them to look over.
2.Wesley was given a creative writing assignment which he describes as “Children were asked to imagine they had a terminal illness and express thanks to loved ones. Wesley said: ‘I just thought it was like any other piece of work. I just got on with it.’”
3. The 14-year-old didn’t give his parents an explanation of his writing assignment be retiring.
4. The next scene happened as such:
Upon handing his parents his homework “he said goodnight and then off he went back upstairs to bed.” Vicki read it, Wesley’s father explains what happened next “and the color just drained from her face. She just froze stiff and handed me this paper with her hands shaking.She burst into his bedroom and expected to see him hanging there – she was horrified. The poor lad almost jumped out of his skin. It really has shaken us up.”
Wesley was set the task last month in his Expressive Arts class, a subject – also offered at GCSE – which aims to ‘develop pupils’ creativity and imagination’.
The parents are now demanding an apology from the school as well as a promise of advanced warning should such an assignment be handed out later.
