Oh, bother. For a fourth-grade math class at a charter school in Miami Springs, Winnie the Pooh is no longer a “willy nilly silly old bear.” He’s now a murderer who goes on a killing spree after being abandoned by his beloved Christopher Robin. A teacher showed students the slasher flick Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, during his math class at the Academy for Innovative Education, and the parents are not happy.
A parent of twins in the class, Michelle Diaz, told CBS Miami that her fourth-grade twins are now “distraught” after being forced to watch this horror movie featuring the beloved bear. She said they had to watch 20 to 30 minutes of the movie, because their teacher wouldn’t stop showing it even after kids asked him to turn it off, saying they didn’t want to watch it anymore.
Diaz told CBS Miami that the kids were tasked with picking the movie, but “it should be up to the professor to look at the content” to determine if it’s appropriate.
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is about Christopher Robin growing up and leaving the 100 acre wood to go to college, only to return to see that his childhood playscape has turned into a desolate hellscape. Pooh and Piglet murder Christopher Robin’s wife right off the bat, and then show Christopher Robin Eeyore’s skeletal remains, as the other characters ate him trying not to starve, according to Rotten Tomatoes and Wikipedia.
One reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes says, “Rhys Frake-Waterfield cloddishly desecrates your childhood, and A.A. Milne’s beloved classic, with a dimly written, shoddily realized, sub-standard slasher whose artistic aspirations never reach beyond making a fast buck.”
Clearly this movie being shown to children goes beyond horror, but can now be categorized as trauma.
So what happened to the teacher?
The school released a statement to CBS News Miami about this extreme lack of judgment:
“The Academy for Innovative Education has become aware that a segment of a horror movie was shown to fourth graders, Monday, October 2, 2023, that was not suitable for the age group,” the statement said. “Our administration promptly addressed this issue directly with the teacher and has taken appropriate action to ensure the safety and well-being of students.
“We are actively monitoring the students and our mental health counselor and principal have already met with those students who have expressed concerns.”