Furore: Bill Henson Scouts For Nude Child Models at Public School

I thought the Bill Henson brouhaha had calmed down since police decided not to press charges over his images of naked adolescents at an art exhibition in Sydney.

Looks like the debate has re-ignited with news that Henson was invited on to primary school grounds by a school principal to scout for models. Follow up reports indicate that he was accompanied on his visit, and he did not talk to the children directly, but rather passed on his details to the parents of the children to see if they were interested in having their child model for him, an invitation that one parent took up.

The news, revealed in a book by journalist David Marr on the entire Henson saga, has been met with the usual public hysteria that sees any naked photography of a minor as pedophilia. I already have friends self-censoring their own innocent, candid nude pics of their kids lest a printing store or computer technician get the wrong idea.

Politicians weighed in on the debate, with Deputy PM Julia Gillard telling the Nine Network,”To find out now that someone has been allowed to go into a school to look at children I think would send a shudder through people’s spines.” She said no one should be on school grounds unless they were there for a legitimate purpose relating to the education of young people.

Thinking back to my own school days, we had heaps of visitors – performers, movie scouts, snake handlers, firemen – not to mention the maintenance workers and other “strangers” entering the school grounds each week.

Apparently things have changed, and parents must now be notified of any stranger coming to the school to meet/look at their kids. Is it overkill? I would hope that I trust the principal of the school I choose to send my child to, to make a fair call on what he or she sees as appropriate. I don’t see the harm in Henson looking around a school ground, if he doesn’t approach any kids. But, mostly, I like Henson’s work. For parents who don’t like it, I can see that they might feel uncomfortable with him being on their school grounds, so perhaps it is an unsuitable way of casting for models. I wonder if the same parents would be upset if Home and Away scouts were scanning their school?