Adult material found on educational DVD sent to primary schools

Gardaí and the Health Service Executive are investigating how adult material featured on an educational DVD for primary school children.

The inappropriate material featured in a Busy Bodies DVD distributed by the HSE to primary schools nationwide as an aid for children entering puberty.

The material came to light on Thursday when primary school teacher viewed the DVD himself before showing it to pupils.

The DVD was not viewed by children and it was removed from the school. The HSE’s Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme was notified and the HSE has reported the incident to the Department of Education and to gardaí, who are now investigating.

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The Busy Bodies programme is a booklet and DVD developmental aid providing information on the physical changes children experience entering adolescence.

The resource is widely used by teachers and parents and is aimed at children aged between 10 and 14.

The current batch of Busy Bodies DVD's have been in circulation in schools for the past ten months and this is the first reported issue of concern, a HSE spokesperson said.

Some 20,000 DVD’s have been ordered and distributed through schools nationwide since last August.

“The Busy Bodies programme is a well-regarded and received, widely-used age appropriate resource for use in primary schools and some secondary schools. This is extremely disappointing,” the HSE spokesperson said.

Investigations to identify how the adult material came to feature on the DVD will focus on areas of production and distribution.

Helen Deely, HSE Programme Lead for Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy said: "Following our initial investigation, this appears to be an isolated incident relating to one individual copy of the resource.

“As a precaution, the HSE is writing to all schools and recipients of the resource, asking that they be returned to schools by parents, and removed from use and circulation until the investigation is complete,” she said.

Parents with concerns are invited to contact the HSElive team Monday-Saturday, 8am-8pm, on 1850 24 1850 or email hselive@hse.ie.