PIC SHOCK
Boss of photography firm ‘heartbroken’ as he apologises over school photo scandal
The move sparked widespread outrage with one devastated mum accusing the firm of 'erasing her child'
THE boss of a photography firm which offered to remove additional support needs (ASN) children from a class photo has apologised to parents.
Families of pupils at Aboyne Primary School in Aberdeenshire complained after they were offered a choice of pictures with or without pupils with complex needs.
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The move sparked widespread outrage with one devastated mum accusing the firm of "erasing her child".
The council claimed the decision was not taken by the school and the link was immediately removed.
Cornwall-based Tempest Photography boss Terence Tempest said he is "heartbroken" over the blunder and is in crisis talks with staff at his business.
He told the : "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."
"Of course I understand how upset the families must be, I would be too."
Mr Tempest said a probe is underway to establish why the blunder happened.
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He added: "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?"
Tempest Photography statement
Tempest Photography issued a statement on Friday apologising for the incident.
It said: "Recently, after capturing a class group photograph, one of our photographers took additional images of the class group which omitted some members of the class from the photograph.
"We deeply regret any upset this has caused and would like to sincerely apologise to the parents and children affected.
"We are a family run business and photograph at schools across the UK and would like to reassure our customers that this is not standard procedure for our company and we are taking this matter very seriously.
"We are committed to implementing meaningful changes to prevent such an occurrence in the future."
Mum-of-two Natalie Pinnell, 38, said her nine-year-old daughter Erin felt “erasable from society” following the “disrespectful” move.
Parents of children in two classes were sent two links to official photographs - one including children with ASN and one without.
Natalie said: "The photographer gave the parents the option to delete members of their class.
"Finding out the only classes that got two links was an ASN-related class just blew my mind."
In one class, two people were removed from the photograph and in the other only Erin had been removed.
Natalie added: "We should not be providing an option to delete one human or in the other class two humans from history.
"It was like 'would you like Erin in it or not?'
"It's disrespectful, it's harmful, it's ableist, it's discriminatory and the photography company have a lot to answer for."
Lisa Boyd's daughter Lily was also left out of the photographs.
Lily, who uses a wheelchair, was one of two kids in her class who were removed.
Lisa said she was in "utter disbelief" when she saw the photo.
She said: “I was devastated and furious all at the same time.
“I thought there must be a reason.
“The school have never ever excluded Lily from anything, in fact they go to extra lengths to ensure she’s included
“I couldn’t believe it
“I actually contacted Tempest and they were unbelievably unhelpful they wouldn't really talk to me about it and the school were just heartbroken.
“I was devastated for Lily really.”
First Minister Humza Yousaf waded into the row saying it was "shameful" to omit children with complex needs from some school photographs.
The First Minister was asked about the reports as he visited a soft play centre in Cumbernauld.
He said it was "shameful, really dreadful".
He told the PA news agency: "It should never have happened at all.
"I don't want to see another single example of that anywhere in Scotland. It's not acceptable, not right.
"And I'm pleased the council responsible has apologised."
Following the incident, a spokesperson from Tempest Photography said: "Recently, after capturing a class group photograph, one of our photographers took additional images of the class group which mitted some members of the class from the photograph.
"We deeply regret any upset this has caused and would like to sincerely apologise to the parents and children affected.
"We are a family run business and photograph at schools across the UK and would like to reassure our customers that this is not standard procedure for our company and we are taking this matter very seriously.
"We are committed to implementing meaningful changes to prevent such an occurrence in the future."
Aberdeenshire Council said: "We are aware that following Aboyne Primary School’s recent school class photographs, links to purchase the pictures included images with and without complex needs provision pupils.
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“Whilst this was not a decision taken by the school, 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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