Mother left distraught by 'sick' homework
A mother has slammed her son's school for a 'sick' and 'insensitive' creative writing assignment that left her fearing he had taken his own life.
Wesley Walker, of Stoke-On-Trent, England, gave his mother Vicki a letter telling her he loved her, asking for bright colours at his funeral and asking her not to be sad, before going up to his bedroom, according to reports from British media.
"I don't want you to be sad I want you to remember the fun times and the happy times. At my funeral make everyone wear bright colours to remember my personality," it said.
"I know I have been a pain at the best of times but I'm with Nan and Grandad now so I love you and goodbye."
He also leaves his prized possessions to family members and asks his mother to be strong.
After reading the note a distraught Mrs Walker ran to his room, terrified Wesley, 14, had taken his own life.
Wesley was in fact asleep and the letter was a creative writing assignment set by a teacher in his expressive arts class in which students had to imagine they had a terminal illness and only a few days to live - although his mother at first feared it may have been suicide note.
Wesley said: "I just thought it was like any other piece of work. I just got on with it."
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Mr and Mrs Walker say they had been left deeply shaken by the experience and complained to the school for not warning the parents about the reason for the letter.
"He handed it to me one evening and then just went upstairs to bed," Mrs Walker told the BBC.
"I really felt like I was going to find him hanging from his bed and maybe he felt he couldn't take any more.
"I spoke to him and he said it was something they were asked to do at school, I felt it to be really sick.
"I just don't think schools should be asking children to write things like this especially when it can be seen as a suicide note, I don't agree with it."
Wesley's school, the Discovery Academy in Stoke-on-Trent apologised for any distress caused by the exercise but maintained many parents had seen it as 'valuable', it allowed young people to express their feelings and it was in line with the curriculum.
Headteacher
Rob Ridout told the BBC:
"It was never the intention of the exercise to cause distress, in fact it was the total opposite of that. We apologise for what happened."
Mr Ridout also confirmed Wesley had shown the letter to a teacher and that pupils were told to take them home.
"The exercise was to enable young people to express emotions and share things with loved ones that they never normally say," he added.
"They were asked to imagine what they would say if they had a short time left and many pupils and their families found it an encouraging and positive experience.
"It's unfortunate that the context of this exercise wasn't explained to Wesley's parents, and we'll look at the way exercises like this are communicated to our students in the future."
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