JET writes that The Scotsman, UK Reports library staff in Scotland have been warned not to put children on their knees during story times for fear they will be branded paedophiles.
Staff have also been told not to “lead a child by the hand” out of the library to look for a missing parent under a new policy introduced by education chiefs.
As well as protecting employees from “vulnerable situations”, the policy also warns librarians to keep an eye out for potential paedophiles and to ask adults acting suspiciously near a children’s area or activity to move on or leave.
Library staff will be told to refrain from physical contact where possible, even when they are trying to comfort a distressed or injured child.
Okay…
I thought this was a prevailing norm. In the school district I worked for as part of its operations directorate (which included all operations employees outside the teachers and the administrators), this would have been accepted as a matter of course and thought nothing of. I guess I am surprised that such is not a norm throughout most of the Anglo-American world.