A DAD fears his 12-year-old son will “have nightmares” after he was set a homework project to research the violent murder of James Bulger.
The Year 8 pupils at Cooper School in Bicester, Oxfordshire, were asked to research the tragic 1993 murder of the two-year-old boy.
James Bulger was abducted, tortured and killed by two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables in 1990.
Parents at the school claim pupils were asked to do homework on the case in preparation for a religious education class on Good and Evil.
Dad Rob Gregg has a son at the Oxford co-educational secondary school and he posted a photo of the homework slip on Twitter.
Alongside the picture he tweeted: “Cooper School Bicester asking their Year 8 students to research this.
“WTF, my boy will have nightmares for weeks now.”
The homework assignment, which is due to be completed by February 5, asks pupils to “make sure you look at respectable websites such as the BBC and newspapers to ‘avoid inappropriate material'”.
Cooper School appeared to be aware the assignment could come as a surprise to parents and attached a warning note for them in the homework slip.
It reads: “Please can we assure you that the covering of the James Bulger case was a very carefully considered decision.
“We are currently studying Good and Evil in Year 8 and, within this considering the problem of evil.
“Full harrowing specifics of the case are not necessary and will not be covered.”
The note asked parents to contact the school directly if they had any concerns but many parents chose to express their views on Facebook instead.
Once they get to a certain age you can’t wrap them up in cotton wool and protect them from the world.
More than 100 people took to the comments to share their views on the homework in a Bicester residents’ Facebook page.
One mum said: “My daughter is Year 8 at Cooper and it was my comment that I have no problem with her doing this.
“She is mature and level-headed, not easily scared or upset and rather analytical with facts.
“Once they get to a certain age you can’t wrap them up in cotton wool and protect them from the world.”
She added the school has now “pulled” the homework.
Another resident disagreed and call the assignment a “disgrace”.
“In all my 20 years compiling class packs and lesson resources for years 7 – 14 I have never seen anything so out of order!”
One former Cooper student, now aged 32, said: “We studied this in Year 8 – of anything it made me more aware of the dangers out there but never traumatised me in any way.”
James Bulger was snatched from the Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, Mereseyside in a crime that rocked Britain.
Thompson and Venables took the two-year-old to a railway line and tortured, beat and sexually assaulted him in a sickening attack.
The public outrage meant James’ killers were tried in an adult court where they were convicted of murder.
The school has been approached for comment.
