School forced to apologise after dad left shocked by 'disgusting' gift his six-year-old daughter made
A school has been forced to speak out after a dad was left fuming with his Father's Day present from his daughter that she made in class.
Trent Howard, from Perth, Australia, has hit out at his six-year-old daughter's school for allowing her to make the 'disgusting' gift and bring it home to give him.
Father's Day in Australia fell on Sunday, 3 September.
The gift was a paper cube with drawings and colourings on it, and each side had a suggestion of what he could do to improve his mood. Sounds sweet, right?
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One side, for instance, urged dads to have a banana on the days they've 'gone round the bend'.
While the handmade present appeared harmless, one side of the cube had a more sinister message.
Alongside the caption 'when all else fails' was a picture of a bullet - with some arguing that it was urging someone to take their own life.
"If you've had enough, shoot yourself. What else does it say?" Trevor fumed.
"I have a weird sense of humour - that's not part of any sense of humour to anybody."
He also labelled the gift as 'disgusting'.
Trent's wife Renae spoke to Connolly Primary School, where the daughter attends, about the controversial message and apparently the teacher who supplied the drawings 'wanted to be funny'.
"That's my interpretation of what the teacher said to me; that she wanted to be funny," Renae told 9News.
A family psychologist was also interviewed as part of the segment, who urged people to be careful about what they say around kids.
Bailey Bosch explained: "Children can take things very literally, it can play on their minds, they might not have the language to articulate what’s distressing them."
"Let's also remember there are adults around that could be completely triggered by some words such as bullets or death," she added.
The Government of Western Australia's Department of Education has since responded to the ordeal and insisted that the school has apologised to parents.
“While I understand the activity related to confectionary, it was clearly not thought through and should never have happened,” Melesha Sands, Deputy Director General, Schools for the WA Department of Education told NCA NewsWire in a statement.
"The school has since apologised to parents and will not be repeating this activity in future.
"The principal has also apologised directly to a parent who put in a complaint.
"I’d like to also apologise to parents and reiterate this activity was not appropriate for students, which has been discussed with the school."
Around 3,000 suicides occur in Australia each year, with men being three times more likely to take their lives than women.
In 2021, suicide was the 15th leading cause of death overall.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.
Niamh Shackleton