East Yorkshire school set Manchester Arena attack 'forgiveness' homework Published duration 18 December 2019 Related Topics Manchester Arena attack

image caption Caroline Davis was injured and her friend was killed in the Manchester Arena attack

A school set a homework assignment about the Manchester Arena bombing where pupils were asked whether "all terrorists should be forgiven".

Bridlington School asked children to imagine themselves being a parent of a victim of the May 2017 blast.

A woman who was injured in the bombing said it was "disgusting that they feel the need to use Manchester".

The head teacher of the East Yorkshire secondary school has apologised "for any upset".

Kate Parker Randall said the work was part of a lesson "which was considering the consequences of crime and the aims of different punishments".

"It followed a discussion in class about a newspaper report that the mother of one of the victims of the Manchester Arena attack had forgiven the bomber for killing her son," she wrote in an online apology.

image copyright J Thomas / Geograph image caption Bridlington School's head teacher has apologised "for any upset" caused by the homework

Caroline Davis, from Otley in West Yorkshire, suffered a shoulder injury and her friend was killed as they waited in the foyer to pick up their children after the Ariana Grande concert.

She described the question as "disgusting" and said she had written to the school to complain.

"It's still so raw for us all that were there and went through what we did, and I can't believe that they would use that," she said.

The question was also criticised by local Conservative MP Sir Greg Knight who described it as "totally unsuitable and in rather bad taste".

The school's head Ms Parker Randall issued an online apology after the homework attracted criticism on social media.

Ms Parker Randall said "in hindsight we would have posed the homework question in a different way".

"The homework was intended to allow students to formulate their own views about whether hate and forgiveness are the best response to even such terrible crimes," she added.