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'Parents were allowed to choose if they wanted Erin in a class photo': 'Heartbroken' mother of nine-year-old girl reveals 'disbelief' after photo firm offered to DELETE her from picture because she has additional needs

7 months ago 42

The 'heartbroken' mother of a girl with additional support needs who was removed from a school picture has told of her 'disbelief' at a photo agency's behaviour.

Natalie Pinnell today said it was 'inhumane' that parents were offered two versions of a class photograph taken at Aboyne Primary School in Scotland - one featuring her daughter Erin, nine, and one without.

The revelations have sparked widespread outrage, including from Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf who condemned the incident at the Aberdeen school as 'really dreadful'.

Businesswoman mother-of-two Ms Pinnell, 38, told ITV's Good Morning Britain today:  'One email went out for the specific classes at the school, with two options.

'One, with specifically my child's class in it and one without her, allowing them to make the choice whether they wanted to delete her from the picture effectively.'

Natalie Pinnell told ITV's Good Morning Britain today of her 'disbelief' at the picture decision

She told how her nine-year-old daughter Erin (pictured) was being 'erased'

Mother-of-two Natalie Pinnell, pictured with daughter Erin, criticised Tempest Photography

When asked by presenters Richard Madeley and Charlotte Hawkins how she responded, she said: 'Disbelief – I didn't actually believe that that could have been the reality.

'I assumed at first that there was another reason for it until I found out another class was affected in the same way.

'That class also, the people being removed was two children with additional support needs – one with a physical disability, in a wheelchair.

'It can be difficult for some kids with additional support needs to be focused, to stay engaged, and it can be a challenge for the school to encourage them to come and partake in those activities.'

She did praise the school for having 'worked so hard to enable Erin to have the opportunity to join her class photo' - but was incredulous about the decision by Tempest Photography's cameraman to then offer alternate versions.

Ms Pinnell told today's programme: 'It's more that they then allowed parents to choose whether they wanted Erin in or not. I'd love to know the answer to that.

'By doing this we've potentially given parents the option to erase Erin.

'If we're going for a model of inclusion in education, we have to as a society accept what that looks like.'

A boss at Tempest Photography, the firm at the centre of the scandal, has insisted the move was 'not company policy'.

Natalie Pinnell was interviewed today by GMB's Richard Madeley and Charlotte Hawkins

She told the presenters there should be more of a 'model of inclusion in education'

Terence Tempest, 70, was unable to explain why parents had been given the option - as he vowed to investigate the 'unacceptable' situation.

Speaking from his £3million riverside home near Falmouth, Cornwall, Mr Tempest said last week: 'We're heartbroken. We have released a statement but at the moment I'm just trying to find out what stimulated this and what the hell happened.

'It's just unacceptable, I don't know what's happened. It's certainly not a policy of ours.'

Asked whether he would apologise to the families involved, Mr Tempest said: 'Of course I understand how upset the families must be - I would be too.

'If I was in that position, I would want an apology. I don't run the company and I'm in touch with the managing director at the moment and they will decide what to do.'

Mr Tempest was unable to explain why parents were given the option to choose photos without children with additional support needs and says the freelance photographer may have decided to do it.

He said: 'I'm not sure what the current policy is, frankly - it depends what we are asked to do. We just respond to what we are asked for.

'We have got another meeting coming up and will find out whether the photographer was asked to do it. Did they do it off their own back?'

Ms Pinnell previously told MailOnline her child had been 'erased from history'.

Three children at Aboyne Primary School (pictured) in Scotland were removed from images sent via an internet link, giving parents the option to order a photo without them in it

Lisa Boyd's nine-year-old daughter Lily Nicolson (pictured), who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, was omitted from one of the class photos, along with another boy

She said: 'It's devastating to have your child be erased from a photo or give parents a choice whether she should or should not be included. She is the most beautiful human being - who could do this?

'I'm grateful that she's not aware of it because the damage that would do to her self-esteem would be devastating.

'But I'm having to tell my other daughter about what's happening to her sister. I'm not sure I'm going to sleep tonight.'

Ms Pinnell, who runs a business management and strategy company in Aboyne, said she was left fuming after she got an email from the school with two photo links.

Another class that had a disabled girl in a wheelchair also had two photos - one with the schoolgirl and one without.

Lisa Boyd's nine-year-old daughter Lily Nicolson, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, was also omitted from one of the class photos, along with another boy.

She said: 'This is clear discrimination and shouldn't happen in a school or anywhere.

'It is the worst that Lily has been treated in her entire life. The school is so inclusive, Lily is included in everything the school does.'

Another outraged mother Natalie Wild, 45, also revealed how a photographer from the same company asked her daughter Tilly who has serious eyesight problems to take off her thick glasses for a picture.

Ms Wild, a commercial property developer, said the request made her daughter feel 'vulnerable and scared' as she relies on her 17 times magnification glasses, and considers them to be part of her.

Erin's (pictured) mother Natalie told MailOnline: 'You can't erase them because they're inconvenient. It's just not OK'

Natalie Wild (pictured with her children) has revealed how a photographer from Tempest Photography asked her daughter Tilly (right) who has serious eyesight problems to take off her thick glasses for a picture 

Tilly was reportedly asked to remove her glasses because 'her mummy would like a photo of her looking pretty'

She complained to the company after the incident in September 2022 when Tilly was in Year One at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Primary School in Spinkhill, Derbyshire.

But after she was told that it should not have happened, another photographer from the firm made the same request to her daughter on the company's return to the school to take annual pictures last September.

Aberdeenshire Council has said of the Aboyne Primary School matter: 'We absolutely appreciate the distress and hurt this has caused some parents and carers and we are sincerely sorry.

'The issue has been taken up with the photography company directly as this is totally unacceptable.'

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