The boss of the Hay Festival has said it would be willing to provide a chair to any school staging a talk with Katie Hopkins.
The sensationalist commentator is promoting a series of events called the Stand Strong School Tour, starting in November, and has said she is due to speak in schools in Wales.
Welsh education secretary, the Brecon and Radnorshire AM, Kirsty Williams has urged schools not to book the Daily Mail columnist who has compared migrants to cockroaches and left her job with broadcaster LBC after calling for a "final solution" following the Manchester Arena terrorist attack.
Hay Festival boss Peter Florence though has said his organisation could help any school staging a talk.
Mr Florence had initially responded by sharing an article stating Ms Hopkins is due to speak at schools in Wales and posting to his Facebook page: "If there are any schoolteachers in Wales who’d like to bring their students to the Hay Festival for free to hear Owen Sheers, Helena Kennedy, Laura Bates or Gillian Clarke please contact me and I’ll sort it. Our children deserve better, deserve truth, deserve real heroes. #ffs #checksdate #nopedefinitelynotAprilFool."
Mr Florence today said: "I think it’s not unhelpful for schoolchildren to be exposed to the reality of Hopkins’ views with good context. They’ll run into them in the world soon enough. But we need to balance that with intelligence, humanity and truth. That’s why we’d like to offer our young people some other opportunities too.
"I know a lot of Welsh teenagers. I’ve never met a 15-year-old who couldn’t take Katie Hopkins in a debate, but the Hay Festival would also happily provide a chair/interviewer to any school who wants to host her."