London: A six-year-old boy in the UK was left "embarrassed and upset" when his school made him take off his hearing aid so that he looks "smart" for his official school photo.
Alfie Durant's mother Kerri after seeing the school photo in which her son was not wearing his hearing aid immediately complained to the school saying her son, who has severe hearing loss in both ears, was being singled out because of his disability.
Alfie is a student at Middlesbrough's Pallister Park Primary.
The mother said she became suspicious that something had happened when her son refused to put his hearing aid on the morning after the school photo shoot.
"He said he was embarrassed to wear it in front of his classmates," she was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.
"When his pictures came he wasn't wearing it in them and he told me the school told him to take it off for the photo so he would look smart.
"I feel my son has been discriminated against because of his disability and would like people to know how he is treated," Kerri said.
The school has now apologised to Alfie's mother and father, Robert, saying there was "no intent to cause any offence by any member of our staff or the photographer".
