Do you want a school photo with or without a classmate in a wheelchair? “It’s disgusting that my daughter is being erased”

Scottish parents reacted with dismay after they could choose a class photo with or without a girl in a wheelchair. “Why is my child missing from the class photo,” asks mother Natalie Pinnell. “Maybe she’s not pretty enough?”

Pupils from the primary school in the village of Aboyne, about 50 kilometers west of Aberdeen, had their pictures taken with their classmates, as they do every year. Their surprise was great when they received a link from Tempest, the company that offers the class photos, and could choose between different photos, with and without a disabled classmate.

Natalie Pinnell noted that her daughter Erin was not seen in any of the class photos provided. “My daughter is amazing and beautiful,” the outraged woman wrote in a post on Facebook. “You should be ashamed of yourself for thinking that it’s okay to erase people. To say I am devastated by this is an understatement. I am heartbroken. This is really disgusting,” he said.

Inhuman

In British media, the woman denounces the “inhumane” action, as if her child is “being erased”. “Giving people the choice to erase my daughter purely for aesthetic reasons is one of the cruelest things I have ever experienced.” Two variants were also offered for the photo of another class in the same school: one with and one without a girl in a wheelchair, says her mother Lisa Boyd. According to the woman, her twin daughters are devastated after nine-year-old Lily was left out of one of the class photos.

In a statement, the municipal council emphasizes that this is not a decision by the school. “But of course we understand the suffering and pain this incident has caused and we are sincerely sorry. What happened is completely unacceptable and we have communicated this to the company involved.”

Tempest reports that the link to the photos was immediately removed. The matter is being investigated and the photographer and school in question have now been contacted. “We will have no further comment,” it said BBC.