A mother was asked to leave Sports Day after she tried to help her disabled daughter join a race.
Lynn Harrison just wanted to help her 6-year-old daughter Tammy feel happy and more included. She lifted her out of the wheelchair and carried her.
She thought it wouldn’t be a problem as she had done the same thing at last year’s event. However, staff at Jeavons Wood Primary School told her it was an issue because there were ‘child protection issues.’
Harrison told Cambridgeshire Live: “When I got to the school they said to me I can’t help Tammy.
“They told me I couldn’t help her because of insurance and child protection, so obviously I wondered and asked how she was going to take part.
“Last year she was able to come out of the buggy and walk with me carrying her.
“When she does that she feels like she’s joining in and she enjoys it more. It also gives her more exercise which is really good for her.”
But the mother was told Tammy’s teaching assistant would have to push her in the buggy if she wanted to join the race.
“I went and sat with the parents and even they thought it was disgusting [behaviour]. I said, ‘No, I will take her out and help her do it. She is my daughter and she needs my help.’
“All the other children were taking part and she wasn’t. They said no due to child protection.”
Harrison believes they were victims of discrimination, adding: “I was asked to leave school premises by a member of staff. She kept asking but I said, ‘No, I’m not leaving. I’m staying here and helping my daughter.’”
Harrison also said that the school had called her when they were short of staff.
“I don’t understand,” she expressed. “When it suits them [the school] I can go in and help them lift her to use the toilet, but when it suits Tammy I can’t do it.
“I think it’s absolutely disgusting from the school. If I wasn’t there, she would have had to stay in her buggy and imagine how she felt, sat in her buggy thinking, ‘Look at all my peers and I am left here sat in my wheelchair.’
“Her one-to-one even gave her the option and she said, ‘I want mummy to help me do it.’ But the school never gave her that option.”
The mother said Tammy, who has cerebral palsy, was over the moon when she crossed the finish line. “The school had no choice, I was helping her, and when she came over the finish line everyone was screaming and cheering,” she said.
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