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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums2nd-grade class photo separates boy in wheelchair from his peers
Canadian mom Anne Belanger was heartbroken when she got the second-grade class photo for her son, Miles Ambridge. Miles, who has spinal muscular dystrophy, is seated in his wheelchair, noticeably separated from his peers, who are posed in three rows. Smiling, Miles leans way over in his chair. "Look at the angle that he was in," Belanger said. "He wants to be part of the gang so much." As for the 7-year-old's earnest smile, Miles' dad said, "It makes me feel even worse that he's so happy in the picture. He's still naive to how other people can treat him." The photo company, Lifetouch, has retaken the photo with Miles seated on the bench.
http://now.msn.com/anne-belanger-mom-angry-that-class-photo-separates-son-in-wheelchair
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)School pics are the worst..
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)Hekate
(91,005 posts)A lot of people are on autopilot in this life -- especially busy ones doing one thing after another quickly. Sometimes all it takes is someone pointing out their error, in this case just a request to individualize a something so routine the teacher and photog didn't even think. Mom made them think.
Now, if the kid in the wheelchair had been left out of the picture altogether, that would have been worthy of calling the news.
I'd like to see Photo #2. Kids that age are so cute.
Floyd_Gondolli
(1,277 posts)Heartbreaking.
On edit: Glad the photographer got it right.
Warpy
(111,437 posts)like she's asking "Where's Miles? There's room right here!"
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)Sorry, just pissed off...
BeyondGeography
(39,393 posts)Why can't people just be a little bit nicer, have a little more common sense?
sharp_stick
(14,400 posts)are pretty much all useless. It's all about speed to them they don't give a shit about how a picture looks.
Any photographer that actually took a fraction of a second with the class before clicking the shutter and yelling "NEXT" would have either moved the kid in the chair right up in the middle and arranged the whole class around him. That would look good.
At the very least he/she could have said "Everyone move over to the left side of the bench and make Miles a part of the picture.
An apology and retake were at least completed and accepted.
Half of my kids school pics look as bad or worse than the average smoking gun mugshot gallery.
Butterbean
(1,014 posts)I cannot imagine the sick feeling she must have had when she saw that picture. To see your child excluded BECAUSE of their special need is a whole other kind of hurt that just wounds a mother like no other. I know that pain.
Bless him, I hope he is just happy with the new picture.
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)Opening Friday! THE FACE SMEARERS "An entity turns 6th graders into monsters who then eat the school janitor's brain"
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)Look where the riser ends --- right at the edge of his wheelchair. My guess is that is where the aide parked him and it was as close as she could get him. He probably came in last from another classroom. Maybe the aide isn't allowed to pick him up?
There is always more than meets the eye.
The teacher should have stood next to Miles and moved the other kids to the ends of the riser if that is the closest they could seat him. Or they should have put Miles on the left side. But it looks like the photographer had them all centered on those risers before Miles got there.
We weren't there and it has been corrected. Chill out everyone!