Dad Disgusted by 6-Year-Old Daughter’s Father’s Day Gift Provided by Her School

When his daughter arrived home with a Father's Day gift for him, one father was expecting to see something sweet and loving. However, he found something far more sinister when his daughter handed the gift over.

An Australian father from the northern suburbs of Perth has been left distressed after his daughter arrived home with a strange Father's Day gift she had made under her teacher's supervision.

Father of two, Trent Howard, has expressed his disappointment that his daughter's teachers had not thought the activity through and sent the children home with a gift that was potentially triggering to parents and students alike.

Howard and his wife are horrified that their daughter was asked to make the gift, with a psychologist saying that Howard's daughter might not even have the words yet to express how the activity distressed her.

What Gift Did Howard's Daughter Bring Home?

Howard's primary school daughter made an activity cube for Father's Day. The cube was meant to be given to the children's fathers on Father's Day to give them ideas on how to cheer up when feeling down.

Each side of the cube contained a printout featuring an object and how it could be of use to the father. Some examples were a banana, for when the father had gone around the bend, and a frog, for when the father needed to "jump to it."

While most of the suggestions were sweet and even funny, there was one side of the cube that Howard was disgusted by. It showed a photo of a bullet, below which read:

"Take when all else fails."

Howard admitted that although he had a strange sense of humor, he did not believe the suggestion was part of anybody's sense of humor. He felt the cube was promoting suicide.

The cube led to Howard and his wife, Renae, filing an official complaint against Connolly Primary School, where their daughter attended school. The school tried to defend its actions in terms of the cube.

Renae and Howard spoke about what it felt like to see the cube for the first time and what the school said about it. Renae shared:

"They wanted to be funny. That was my interpretation of what the teacher had said to me. She was wanting to be funny. It wasn't funny."

Australia's education department admitted that the activity showed a "serious lack of judgment." After the incident, the school apologized to the Howard family and vowed never to repeat the exercise.

Howard believes change needs to happen everywhere as many families experience suicide at some point, and the fact that the school had essentially promoted the act as a Father's Day gift required it to stop.

What Did People Say?

People commented on Howard's family's story which made the news. Many shared Howard's outrage at the school allowing children to make such a gift.

One Facebook user said something like this was not readily understandable to a child. While some adults might be able to see the humor in it, a child would not, as they took everything literally.

Considering the high suicide rate in men, another user said a joke like this should never have been made, let alone given to primary school children to take home to their fathers for a special occasion.

Meanwhile, for one commenter, it became more apparent that the teaching standard needed to be improved. While the user recognized that everyone made mistakes, they also said they found the joke "appalling."

One person said there was humor in the cube but that a primary school child was not the person to express this humor to. The user's comment read:

"It is funny and clearly a joke, but it's more appropriate for older students who can fully grasp the dark humor."

While this family experienced a problem with what their daughter brought home from school, another family had an issue with what their daughter had taken to school. You can read the full story here.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org.