Vet Me, Vet Me!
Posted on : 16-07-2009 | By : Joe Craig
In : Author Events!, General
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I have a long story to tell you about what happened when I was finally fully digested and ejected by the monster that ate me, but I’m going to save that for now because…
I escaped from the cave! Only temporarily. I’m back now.
I snuck out (in a cab) and found myself at BBC TV Centre. You’d have thought that I might use my appearance on BBC News 24 to decry the plight of all the authors in this cave and make a plea for our rescue, but I didn’t. Didn’t think of it. Oops.
Instead, I ranted and raved (a little bit) about this story.
A handful of very eminent children’s author have got themselves all worked up about authors having to be registered and vetted before we can visit schools. They’ve even decided to boycott schools from now on.
Isn’t that a shame?
Seems like a bit of an over-reaction to me, and I said so on the telly tonight. I will say so again on the telly tomorrow morning. I might also say some other things, such as:
Yes, it’s extremely rare for an author to be left alone with a child in a school, and in theory it should NEVER happen. So perhaps vetting authors seems unnecessary. But even when I’ve addressed a hall of 300 kids from a stage, and everything is supervised by staff, there are still moments, especially during the signing afterwards, when staff are so occupied marshalling the crowd that they have no way of monitoring what I’m saying or doing with kids at the front of the queue. Then I always stay in touch with kids I’ve addressed at schools afterwards, online – on websites like this one, and my pages on facebook and bebo.
I might also say other things, depending on how the mood strikes me, what I have for breakfast beforehand and how late I get to bed tonight.
We’ll see…
Oh, so here’s the ‘important announcement’ bit, in big, clear letters:
BBC BREAKFAST NEWS, 7.45am TOMORROW! Watch me! (But if you’re of a nervous disposition, vet me first. Just in case…)
I agree, Joe, and if we had TV in here I’d be watching you and cheering you on.
Don’t get me wrong, I can see both sides of the argument. As has been said, it’s very rare for an author to be left alone with children at a school, but simply by being there in school, the author then becomes a ’safe’ person.
Before being stuck in here, I visited a few local schools. In the weeks that followed, at least a dozen of the pupils I’d met stopped me in the street to say hello. They all no doubt know never to speak to strangers, but by that point I wasn’t a stranger any more. They knew my name, and they’d already spoken to me in a controlled environment, so – again – I was ’safe’.
Of course, I am ’safe’. 99.9% of adults are. But if going on a database like this stops the 0.1% who aren’t ’safe’ being put in contact with young or vulnerable people, then I’m all for it.
That said, I think the registration fee’s a bit of a kick in the teeth…
Couldn’t have put it better, Barry. (And in fact I didn’t!)
About the fee: surely most authors will just pass the fee on to the schools? If I split the fee across all the schools I’ll visit in the next, say, 12 months, it comes out at a couple of quid extra per school.
I agree with this scheme completely – for all the reasons Joe and Barry have stated.
While schools promise never to leave an author alone with children, you’d be surprised how many times a pupil is asked to take me to the classroom for my next workshop.
Plus, as Barry said, I get stopped in the street frequently by pupils from the local school. I’m someone they know and trust – but they don’t really know me at all.
I want everyone who comes into contact with children at my son’s school to be vetted – so why shouldn’t that apply to me when I go into someone else’s child’s school?
By boycotting schools, all the authors named in the article are doing is depriving children of an important experience. Why should they suffer because the authors think they are too well known to have to be vetted?
As for the fee – I’ll be spreading that across several schools, as Joe suggested, as a small addition to my expenses.
[...] writer. He’s also written extensively about the subject on both his own blog, and on the Trapped By Monsters site. I agree with everything he has [...]