A Moscow school has been accused of editing a girl with Down syndrome out of its yearbook.
The girl, Masha, 7, is a not a student at the school, but the daughter of one of the teachers.
She sometimes sits in class, and managed to find her way into one of the photographs that were included in the yearbook.
Parents at the school told The Moscow Times that other parents had complained about Masha’s presence in the ‘glossy yearbook’ prompting the school to recall the photographs, and edit Masha out.
The Moscow Times quotes Olga Sinayeva, saying: “The album is all so very pompously glossy, with all kinds of poetry about school, friendship and mutual understanding (but) the reason why children were asked to return this album is simple.
“Many parents can’t stand the photograph of the girl, Masha, who has Down syndrome, the daughter of the homeroom teacher, next to their children.”
Olga says Masha goes to school on those days when her Mum can’t find anyone to look after her.
“The mom is teaching, Masha is sitting quietly … [she] doesn’t get in anybody’s way,” she said, ‘she tries to interact, hugs everyone, she is kind and defenseless, but children shrink away from her.”
Comments to her Facebook post include a remark by another woman, Gulmira Kushekova, saying that when her daughter, who also suffers from Down syndrome, was accepted to a “regular” kindergarten, the parents of three other students removed their children from that class, “saying it was humiliating for them.”
