The Times article ‘Parents condemn offer of class photo without complex needs pupils’

A 29 March 2024 Times article describes a photography firm, hired to take photos at a UK primary school, which sent an email to all parents offering “a choice of class photograph, some of which had removed pupils with complex needs.” In other words, parents could order a group photo with all the children in the photo, or a group photo without the students with impairments. The article was not entirely clear on why two photos were taken in the first place. We can analyze this occurence in light of the processes of societal devaluation, of negative stereotyping, of unconscious devaluation perhaps, and of the messages sent by these images.