The boss of a photography company who left mothers “devastated” by offering to remove disabled children from class photos has called the offer “unacceptable”.
Terence Tempest, 70, revealed “heartbroken” bosses were locked in crisis meetings to find out “what the hell happened”.
It comes after three children from Aboyne Primary School in Scotland were removed from images sent via an internet link, giving parents the option to request a photo without them.
Speaking from his £3million riverside home near Falmouth, Cornwall, Tempest said: “We are heartbroken. We have issued a statement but at the moment I am just trying to find out what spurred this and what the hell happened.
‘It’s just unacceptable, I don’t know what happened. It is certainly not our policy.
“We had a crisis meeting this morning and another this afternoon.”
Three children from Aboyne Primary School (pictured) in Scotland were removed from images sent via an internet link, giving parents the option of requesting a photo without them.
Lisa Boyd’s nine-year-old daughter Lily Nicolson (pictured), who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, did not appear in one of the class photographs, along with another child.
Nine-year-old Erin Pinnell was also omitted from the school photo. Her mother called the decision “inhumane” and said her son had been “erased from history.”
Asked if he would apologize to the families involved, 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 contact with the CEO at the moment and they will decide what to do.’
Tempest was unable to explain why parents were given the option to choose photographs without children with additional support needs and says it is possible that the freelance photographer decided to do so.
He said: “Frankly, I’m not sure what the current policy is, it depends on what we are asked to do.” We simply respond to what is asked of us.
‘We have another meeting coming up and we will find out if the photographer was asked to do it. Did they do it on their own?
Businesswoman Natalie Pinnell, 38, a mother of two, told MailOnline that the decision to omit her nine-year-old daughter Erin from her class photograph had “devastated” her family.
She described the decision made by Cornwall-based Tempest Photography as “inhumane” and said her son had been “erased from history”.
Ms Pinnell said: “They can’t be deleted because they are inconvenient.” It’s just not right.
“It’s devastating to have your child deleted from a photo or give parents the option to include them or not.
‘She is the most beautiful human being. Who could do this?
Mum-of-two Natalie Pinnell, 38, told MailOnline that the decision to omit her nine-year-old daughter Erin (pictured together) from her class photo had “devastated” her family.
Erin’s mum Natalie (pictured) told MailOnline: ‘You can’t delete them because they’re inconvenient.’ It’s just not right.
Pinnell (pictured) described the decision made by Cornwall-based Tempest Photography as “inhumane” and said her son had been “written out of history”.
She said, ‘You can’t delete them because they’re inconvenient.’ It’s just not right.
She added: “It’s devastating to have your daughter deleted from a photo or to give parents the option to include her or not.”
Natalie, who runs a business strategy and management firm in Aboyne, said she became furious after receiving an email from the school with two photo links, one that included her daughter and one that did not.
‘I’m grateful she’s not aware of it because the damage it would do to her self-esteem would be devastating.
But I have to tell my other daughter what is happening to her sister. I’m not sure if I’m going to sleep tonight.
Natalie, who runs a business strategy and management firm in Aboyne, said she was left furious after sshe received an email from the school with two photo links: one that included her daughter and one that didn’t.
Another class that had a disabled girl in a wheelchair also had two photos: one with the schoolgirl and one without her.
Natalie added: ‘I checked with the school and they checked with the photographer. She said “yes, that’s what we’ve done.”
‘It has been the most traumatic experience we have felt as a family.
‘I really wanted to believe there was a different reason. I was trying to find a reason why someone would have made that decision.
‘We have been in mourning. It has hurt us. I feel like I haven’t even gotten to the bottom of my shock. It has been absolutely devastating.
“The worst part was when I was talking to a friend about what happened and she found out there were two links for her daughter.”
Natalie said the school, which has a dedicated additional needs centre, had promised to never use the business again.
Natalie Wild (pictured with her children) has revealed how a Tempest Photography photographer asked her daughter Tilly (right), who has severe vision problems, to remove her thick glasses for a photograph.
Tilly was reportedly asked to take off her glasses because “her mom would like a photo of her looking pretty.”
He added: ‘It has been something difficult to process as a family. As a mother I want to defend her, and for people to think it’s erasable is just devastating beyond belief.
“Giving parents the option of whether or not to include a particular child because they don’t fit in at all is beyond comprehension.”
Natalie wasn’t the only mother outraged by the shocking decision.
Lily Nicolson, Lisa Boyd’s nine-year-old daughter, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, was also omitted from one of the class photos, along with another child.
She said: ‘This is clear discrimination and should not happen in a school or anywhere else.
‘This is the worst they’ve treated Lily in her entire life. The school is so inclusive that Lily is included in everything the school does.
‘His twin sister, Iona, is in a different class and I only got one photo for that class, but I got two for Lily’s, one without my son. It’s horrendous.’
Another outraged mother, Natalie Wild, 45, also revealed today how a photographer from the same company asked her daughter Tilly, who has severe vision problems, to take off her thick glasses to take a photo.
Wild, a commercial property developer, said the request made her daughter feel “vulnerable and scared” as she relies on her 17x magnifying glasses and considers them a part of her.
She complained to the company after the incident in September 2022, when Tilly was in year one at Immaculate Conception Catholic Primary School in Spinkhill, Derbyshire.
But after being told that shouldn’t have happened, another photographer at the firm made the same request of her daughter when the company returned to school for annual pictures last September.
The company says it is investigating.
The Prime Minister was asked about the reports while visiting a children’s play center in Cumbernauld. He said he was “embarrassing, really appalling”.
He told the PA news agency: “This should never have happened.”
“I don’t want to see a single example of that anywhere in Scotland. It’s not acceptable, it’s not right.
“And I’m glad that the responsible city council has apologized.”