School photography company erases the pictures of disabled children from class photo

[hollydolly]

Parents are up in arms at a school in Scotland when they discovered that the Company who takes the School classroom photos of the students, sent copies to the parents offering to remove the children who are disabled from the pictures...

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

Businesswoman mother-of-two Natalie Pinnell, 38, told MailOnline the decision to omit her nine-year-old daughter Erin from her class photo had 'devastated' their family.

She described the decision taken by Cornwall-based Tempest Photography as 'inhumane' and said her child had been 'erased from history'. The company says it is investigating.

Tempest Photography is run by Terence Tempest, 70, who lives in a £3million riverside lodge in Cornwall.

Ms Pinnell said: 'You can't erase them because they're inconvenient. It's just not OK.

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

Natalie added: 'I queried it with the school and they queried it with the photographer. He said ''yes, that's what we have done.''

'It's been the most traumatic experience as a family that we have felt.

'I really wanted to believe there was a different reason. I was trying to look for a reason why someone would have made that decision.

'We have mourned. We have hurt. I feel like I haven't even hit the bottom of my shock. It's been absolutely devastating.

'The worst part was when I was talking to a friend about what happened and she found that there were two links for her daughter.'

Natalie said the school, which has a dedicated additional needs hub, had vowed never to use the company again.
Fury as photo firm offers to DELETE disabled children from class photo

 

[ohioboy]

Beautiful little girls!

 

[hollydolly]

Beautiful little girls!

absolutely they are... how dare anybody try to delete them as tho' they didn't exist.

offering other parents the opportunity to have their childs' class photo with the disabled children removed is beyond the Pale...the distress this has caused not only to the parents of the disabled children, but it's given the message to the able bodied children in the class that being disabled is shameful..

I hope this company who readily admitted they did it on purpose...lose all school contracts..

 

[Warrigal]

That would never have been tolerated in any school where I was a teacher.
The ones who would have objected the loudest would have been the classmates of any child with some sort of handicap.

 

[Della]

It's hard to believe that such insensitivity, lack of social awareness, and sheer stupidity exists in the world today.

 

[hollydolly]

.....another outraged mother Natalie Wild, 45, has 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.

 

[MarkD]

That would never have been tolerated in any school where I was a teacher.
The ones who would have objected the loudest would have been the classmates of any child with some sort of handicap.

Same. Surely they will be sued and those directly responsible should receive consequences.

 

[Dustbunny]

Arggghhhhh.... Can't find the words (at least printable ones).

 

[CallMeKate]

Arggghhhhh.... Can't find the words (at least printable ones).

Same for me, @Dustbunny ... I can't believe something like this actually went on. Those poor kids being made to feel that way!

 

[Murrmurr]

But some parents ordered the altered photos. Some of them wanted those girls deleted.

Maybe the photography company got requests first, and then offered to erase the kids for other parents who wanted them taken out. It's still being investigated.

 

[Sciguy]

All I can do is shake my head in disbelief.

 

[Della]

But some parents ordered the altered photos. Some of them wanted those girls deleted.

Maybe the photography company got requests first, and then offered to erase the kids for other parents who wanted them taken out. It's still being investigated.

They should have refused. They had bigger considerations than making those one or two sales. If it had been my company I would have blurred out the face of the requestor's child and mailed back the photo saying I had removed all offensive material.

 

[Murrmurr]

They should have refused. They had bigger considerations than making those one or two sales. If it had been my company I would have blurred out the face of the requestor's child and mailed back the photo saying I had removed all offensive material.

I agree. If it was my company, I'd tell them to take it up with the school.

 

[birdy]

Terribly insensitive.

 

[Paladin1950]

Reminds me of someone in the news, who said that he didn't want to have his picture taken with amputees, since they don't make him look good.

 

[hollydolly]

But some parents ordered the altered photos. Some of them wanted those girls deleted.

Maybe the photography company got requests first, and then offered to erase the kids for other parents who wanted them taken out. It's still being investigated.

Nope. otherwise the company would have have said so. They didn't... and anyway if it had been other parents who had asked why would the company have made 2 copies for every parent... ? to give them the option...including the parents of the disabled children..and not, just sent doctored photos to the requesting parents ?

this company obviously feel that disability is something to be ashamed of.. and automatically presumed most other people think the same way.

Well... if thine eye offends thee.. Photographic company.. (and in this case it was the owner Terence Tempest who took this decision)...... then Mr Tempest pluck thine eye out !!

 

[hollydolly]

Reminds me of someone in the news, who said that he didn't want to have his picture taken with amputees, since they don't make him look good.

who said that ?...

 

[hollydolly]

In later news...the company is panicking due to the backlash.....despite the owner admitting to it this morning....


A boss of a photography company that left mothers 'devastated' by offering to delete disabled children from class photos described the offer as 'unacceptable'

Terence Tempest, 70, revealed 'heartbroken' bosses were locked in crisis meetings to discover 'what the hell happened'.

It comes after three children at Aboyne Primary School in Scotland were removed from images sent via an internet link, giving parents the option to order a photo without them in it.

Speaking from his £3m riverside home near Falmouth, Cornwall, Mr Tempest said: '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.

'We had a crisis meeting this morning, we are having another one this afternoon.'
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?'

 

[Murrmurr]

Nope. otherwise the company would have have said so. They didn't... and anyway if it had been other parents had asked why would the company have made 2 copies for every parent... ? to give them the option...including the parents of the disabled children..and not just sentd doctored photos to the requesting parents ?

this company obviously feel that disability is something to be ashamed of.. and automatically presumed most other people think the same way.

Well... if thine eye offends thee.. Photographic company.. (and in this case it was the owner Terence Tempest who took this decision)...... then Mr Tempest pluck thine eye out !!

I was speculating; "Maybe the photography company got requests first". The article said the school is still looking into it.

 

[hollydolly]

I was speculating; "Maybe the photography company got requests first". The article said the school is still looking into it.

yes and the boss of the photography business admitted he did it.. and has now backtracked trying to blame the photographer..

However in the comments there are people who worked for this company in the past and said the owner is a pig... and it's taken too long for him to be found out...

 

[Teacher Terry]

It looks like the owner might get what’s coming to him. What a horrible person!!

 

[January]

another outraged mother Natalie Wild, 45, has 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...

OP this seems incredibly wrong - incredulous that any company could think this was a good idea.

and even if any parents requested it, answer should still have been firm No - even purely from a business point of view without any photographer's ethics, it should be obvious that losing those couple of sales would be far less damaging than agreeing to the request.

Holly, that seems equally insensitive - asking someone in a neutral way, Would you like this with your glasses on or off? with no implied judgment either way, is fine - but suggesting or telling the person - obviously very different and wrong.

 

[HoneyNut]

Would you like this with your glasses on or off? with no implied judgment either way, is fine

I'm glad you said this because, as a kid who hated pictures of myself in glasses and learned to remove my glasses before photos, I felt like it might have been a well-intentioned suggestion.

 

[hollydolly]

OP this seems incredibly wrong - incredulous that any company could think this was a good idea.

and even if any parents requested it, answer should still have been firm No - even purely from a business point of view without any photographer's ethics, it should be obvious that losing those couple of sales would be far less damaging than agreeing to the request.

Holly, that seems equally insensitive - asking someone in a neutral way, Would you like this with your glasses on or off? with no implied judgment either way, is fine - but suggesting or telling the person - obviously very different and wrong.

agreed... .. and I remember as small child who had to wear glasses to correct a lazy eye, how I felt whenever on the rare occasion family photos were taken my father always told me to take my glasses off.. so I know how that feels...

 

[hollydolly]

I'm glad you said this because, as a kid who hated pictures of myself in glasses and learned to remove my glasses before photos, I felt like it might have been a well-intentioned suggestion.

but it wasn't a suggestion. The developed photos were sent with the disabled children removed from the picture.

In one case a set of twins where only the able bodied child remained in the photo

The little girl who wears very strong lenses .. who can barely see without them.. was asked to take her glasses off ''because mummy would like it better''... mummy didn't!