A nation of suspected predators.

last updated 8 January 2015

United Kingdom

Mick Hume

We’re training our kids to be pathologically afraid of strangers, said Mick Hume in the London Times. Newspapers have been screeching about the recent discovery that several known pedophiles were somehow given teaching posts in public schools. The “porno sirs” scandal—you can thank the tabloid The Sun for that moniker—had editorialists calling for stricter vetting of teachers. Well, now we’ve got that in spades. The government has decided to run background checks on anyone who might ever possibly come into contact with a child. This includes teachers, lunch ladies, janitors, coaches, nurses, doctors, and social workers, but also those in “less obvious” jobs such as the cleaners and catering staff at hospitals. “Why stop there? Why not vet all the bus drivers, shop workers, and cinema ushers, too?” And given that the initial scandal was over a man who got access to two kids because his girlfriend was a teacher’s aide, we should probably run checks on “the near and dear” of those 9.5 million adults as well. “Our children’s future is at greater risk from educating them in this mean spirit of suspicion than from the possible presence in the classroom of a few teachers with an unhealthy interest in boys’ underpants.”