Parents offered class photo with no 'complex needs' pupils

[BlowDryRat]

This is appalling. A school photographer offered class photo options with SEN children removed. The kids and parents involved must feel so hurt.

That is disgusting and no school should be using this company going forward.

Is this really true? Absolutely disgusting, wtf?!

Awful but disability based nastiness and prejudice rarely surprises me anymore as a disabled person myself.

If true this is absolutely shocking and disgraceful.

Depends on the needs, really. Some children might not be able to wait so would go first, some might want to hang back and size it all up before having the photo taken. It would be very unusual to have a group who all felt exactly the same about the process!

My guess is the children concerned were positioned at the ends and so will literally just edited out.

I’m just shocked that someone thought that was an appropriate thing to do.

(someone earlier posted that lots on mumsnet want SEN kids removed - I don’t think that is the case, I think they want them to get the support they need, which might not be mainstream, but there isn’t the finding which leaves everyone frustrated.)

No it's because often they are not being properly supported at mainstream schools due to cost.
This is such a horrible thing to be offered and I can't imagine what the thinking behind it was. It basically saying 'we will erase the disabled children' which is about as awful as it gets.

I dont understand a few things here

How does the photographer know who children are with complex needs, what do children with complex needs look like
Why is there a view that parents may have asked for these children to be removed from photos before, what differnce does it make to another parent if a child with complex needs is in the school photo
Some posters on here seemed to know the company involved, which suggests they have form, why are schools using this company then, what does the company say about this?

Im a bit torn on this tbh. As i said earlier my son has Complex needs and id be gutted if he was erased from photo. However in saying that would i be happy paying a small fortune for a class photo where one child is maybe distressed or being disruptive etc. Where would it end though...delete child A cos their shoes look dirty, delete child B cos their hair is untidy etc...

On the face of it it sounds awful but I can see how it could happen.

Like a pp said, these photos are taken in groups of smaller children. If the group of children with complex needs were taught in a separate area then they'd probably be photographed as a group. Then the 'main body' of the class say, split into 3 groups, and photographed separately. Then all the individual photos mashed together.

These photographers probably photograph dozens of groups and often then mash them together to form different outcomes - so all the kids from one class. All the kids from choir from all classes. All the boys. All the girls. All the football team from years 1-3. Whatever other groupings there are. They have no actual knowledge of who the hell is who.

I think the most likely reason for this is an unsure editor who thoughtlessly just tried to cover all bases. Mashing all the pics of Mrs Jones class together to form a class photo then thinking hang on - these 3 were taken at 10am but this group of six kids weren't photographed until the afternoon. Is it a mistake? Are these kids actually Mrs Jones class, they werent there with the rest. What if I do Mrs Jones class and include this random group of kids who aren't actually in the same class? Ah fuck it, I'll just put both versions in just in case.

I wondered if it was something like that.

We're in Aberdeenshire. Tempest have done our photos. All children including those with complex needs included. According to my children, all the pictures were taken as seen and not spliced together. My youngest has a choice of a "silly" photo (tongues stuck out etc), a "sensible" option and then a "sensible" picture of the whole composite plus teacher which is probably the option we'll pick.

For me, we don't put up the class photos, just the ones of our kids. I've ordered one of them individually and one of them together. So for us at any rate, the class photo is purely so they can have a reminder of those classes when they're older/hopefully still friends with some of them. I think leaving someone out is awful

God it’s like the Stazi. What crime has been committed?

the school name is listed several time and the link is literally a photo of the school sign.

Its Aboyne Primary.

They aren't going to share the link because it was instantly removed and they are going to send a link to buy class photos out to every tom, dick and harry worldwide anyway.

But does he have complex needs?

Not everyone who is autistic does.

That’s horrendous and so hurtful for the children and families involved.

Yeah there's a kid in my son's class who intentionally spoils every picture by spitting on the kids in front, sticking his fingers up, screaming

Spitting? Sorry never mind about ruining the photo op - spitting is disgusting and unhygienic . Why should anyone tolerate others spitting on them? I’d have hated that as a child or as a staff member.

One my goddaughters is in a SEN hub attached to a mainstream, I remember one year her mum had two school pics: one of her and her cohort from the hub and one with the whole year group - so I assume the mainstream year group also had a photo without the kids from the hub. Could it be something like that rather than something more sinister? If there was a choice to have a photo with the kids your child knows and interacts with vs one with additional children they didn’t know or particularly interact with, most people would probably go with the former without meaning to throw shade on the latter..

It just sounds like some sort of mix up to me and probably not something done with intent by the photographers. What motive could they possibly have?

I thought it might be something like this. And parents of kids not in the other photo wouldn’t see it so for most of them they would only see two options of photo.

parents of group A would see
just group A + group A and B

parents of group B would see
just group B + group A and B

You mean when they offered the option of a photo without any of the children with complex needs they meant something else?

Could it be like a SEN class group had their own photos in a group. Then a main class had theirs then both had photos done together? So you could have the SEN group photo or the Whole group photo.

That's the only reasonable explanation I can think of?

I cant read the link but did the photographers say 'do you want the picture without complex needs kids in it'

Or did they say 'do you want the picture with class A or with class A and B' (with B being an SEN unit in the school)

It was the photography place not the school (for anyone who can’t get into the article). The school were alerted by parents and got onto the photography firm who said they’re investigating

People on this thread making excuses for this, seriously, shut up.

It doesn't shock me, it's simply another chip away at the little faith in society I have left. It feels like only yesterday you were all happy to refuse to give my child a ventilator if needed because of their learning disabilities. Of course some people would opt to erase them from sight also.