The Class Photo that Broke a Mother’s Heart

yahoo.com ^ | June 17, 2013

[grundle]

What is wrong with this picture?

It's one of those things that you don't get, until you get it. Unless you are eternally empathetic, you look at this photo and don't see much wrong at all.

To Anne Belanger, mother of Miles, the photo is unbearable to look at.

When the class portrait for her son's Grade 2 class came home, she opened it excitedly, and immediately shoved it back in the envelope. She couldn't look at it. It broke her heart.

Anne's son, Miles, has Spinal Muscular Atrophy. At the age of 13 months, his parents were told that Miles would never walk, he has spent his life in a wheelchair.

Miles knows he's different than the rest of the kids, but he still tries to fit in. So there he is, on the far side of the image, neck craning as far as he can to stretch into the frame with the rest of his friends. He's beaming. It's school picture day and he's thrilled.

But the photo still broke Anne's heart. The photo was a clear example of how set apart her son is from society. Instead of a big group hug photo with Miles at the center, and classmates and teachers all around, a fully inclusive image, he was stuffed off to the side, some 3 feet away. An after thought, it seems.

[GeronL]

My son is in a special needs class. They keep him and 8 others mostly separated from the rest of the school. I hate it ...he’s marginalized and kept on the periphery.

Maybe he needs different instruction than the other students. Maybe having him in a regular class would disrupt the educations of him and them if they have to give him separate instructions. Him being "wonderful" is beside the point.

"kept on the periphery" of what?

Do you think they should be in a regular classroom if it disrupts and interferes with the education of the other students and the disabled kids too? Do you think it more important for them to be there than for all the kids to get the best education?

Isn't it possible you are using emotion in that post instead of logic?

[Third Person]

Obama can fix it! Maybe the boy can sit with Mooch at the next SOTU.

[Thumper1960]

Had to read all the way through the posts.
Yeah. There is a deficit of ‘’empathy’’ at FreeRepublic.
It is likely the boy won’t make it far into adulthood.
As for some posters, they may never ethically mature to adulthood.

[Revolting cat!]

Mawkish sentiments of the reading public is what made a Stephen Hawking book a Numero Uno bestseller. A journalist in D.C. went into a bookstore and inserted into each of those books on a stack a note saying "Call me, I'll give you $50 ph: xxx xxxx". The note was placed somewhere after page 25. He received no a single call. The book (if I have to explain it) of advanced physics, incomprehensible to most people, was not read by these sentimentalists.

[UnwashedPeasant]

Idiot photographer.

[Sheapdog]

They should have slid everyone over. The teacher should have said something.

I went through elementary school with a special needs kid in a wheelchair. He was severely disabled. I didn’t mind him being with the class for a few hours everyday but he really needed to be not totally inclusive with the regular kids. He couldn’t really speak or control his muscles and movements. I don’t care what the parents might say he needed to be with the kids like him and that needed constant attention. An hour or two a day - great.

I remember feeling torn - as he was in our cubscouts and boyscouts troop and because of that even though our leaders owned a ranch and lake house and boats we never did anything he couldn’t do and participate in so our troop couldn’t qualify for any arrows or badges; it was kinda a joke compared to all the other troops. Oh well, I know the kid loved it and we just had to take one for the team.

I just think each situation is unique and there needs to be some compromise on all sides. I don’t think that an entire group of kids should be necessarily denied some experiences and opportunities because the special needs child can’t participate. That might seem unfair; I’m sorry.

[BykrBayb]

Yep. Some people have a “better off dead” mentality. I wonder why they would want to hang out at a conservative site.

[Amendment10]

It looks like the put his chair as close as it could get to the benches.

I agree. In fact, if photographer was working under time restraints with little time to experiment how to fit wheelchair into picture, especially if photographer hadn't expected someone in a wheelchair, other classes scheduled for picture too, then it's no surprise that boy wound up where he did.

Perhaps the teacher could have stood between the boy and his classmates, positing teachers in the left side of the picture possibly force of habit for a hurried photographer.

I emphasize with Mrs. Belanger, but I suspect this is an innocent situation regardless if awkward.

[GeronL]

You are cruel and heartless, if little Jimmy can’t swim, then nobody on Earth should ever be allowed to swim!

You lack compassion!

Imagine 25 kids in a class sitting there doing nothing because one of their number needs constant attention and learns differently than they do. Imagine how far behind that class of kids will be.

[DJ MacWoW]

I'm sorry but this is ridiculous. My MiL had polio at 3 years of age. That was in 1916. She had one malformed arm and a shorter leg for the rest of her life. She led a normal life and had numerous surgeries as technology advanced in order to help her leg but her right arm was always shriveled. She became a school teacher and had 3 children. She told me that when she was 5 she came in complaining that her siblings were pelting her with snowballs. She was told to throw some back. She did.

As long as this mother pities her son, she will never encourage him to believe that he's normal and simply has a wheelchair.

[Revolting cat!]

The thread of daddy Bush’s ADA enthusiasts, which ADA drove thousands of businesses out of business (but you’ll have to ask the MSM why they won’t talk about it and won’t provide statistics.)

[CharlesWayneCT]

And I’m thinking, maybe they marched all the kids in, and the photographer arranged them all by height, and then when they were ready, they said “Oh, and don’t forget the kid in the wheelchair.”

The kid looks happy enough, like he knows this is how his life is. He’s in a wheelchair that is quite big, so nobody is ever really up against him. They probably walk pretty far away so they don’t get run over.

And I guess either he’s in the front of the room, or they made a wide walkway for him to pull into. At an auditorium, he’ll stick out in an aisle, and if he’s lucky it’s a modern one where a couple people can sit in chairs that are close enough he can yell to them, while everybody else complains that the wheelchair is sticking into the aisle, and people behind him can’t see because his head is 2 feet higher than all the others.

[Bigg Red]

Momma drama.

&&
+1

[cuban leaf]

Are we so cold hearted, that we lack compassion?

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No. I think we are so cheap that we don’t get a professional photographer. What we get is the same photo type we got in my second grade class photo in 1962. The photographer is not there to be creative. He’s there to get a shot of the class in the photo. Is there a kid in a wheelchair? shove him to the side of the bench and get the shot. Now, get back to class, kids so I can set up the shot for Mrs. Phillips’ fifth grade class picture.

It’s not about compassion.

[cuban leaf]

Serious question; What is wrong with you?

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Actually, if you read the article that really does pretty much sum up the mother’s remark.

[melsec]

The kid is as happy as a pig in muck.

[cuban leaf]

Yea I would bet that this photographer just doesn’t like kids all that much.

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Or he is bored with his job and it doesn’t pay all that much. You don’t get the cream to do those shots for a living...

[usconservative]

And I’m thinking, maybe they marched all the kids in, and the photographer arranged them all by height, and then when they were ready, they said “Oh, and don’t forget the kid in the wheelchair.”

Neither you or I were there, so we don't really know what happened. I'm willing to give the photographer the benefit of the doubt that the picture was taken without any malice or intent of hurting this child or his family's feelings.

Others may choose to read into this picture something that may -- or may not -- be there. I really don't think any reasonable, decent human being would've knowingly positioned all the kids this way indicating separation between the physically challenged child and the others.

Some people look for reasons and opportunities to be offended when no offense or malice was ever intended. I'm not one of those people.

[cuban leaf]

I say the child should have been in the middle of the photo surrounded by his classmates.

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Why?

[SuzyQueIN]

I’m no bleeding heart but was immediately dismayed by the photo. No, he needn’t be the center of attention. But it would have been nice if the rest of the class had formed their group from his end of the bench and perhaps the teacher stood beside him. Consideration is a virtue.