Legal warning over Inverness school's trip

A school trip for about 70 pupils has been cancelled because of potential legal action over the exclusion of a disabled child in the group. The stay at an outdoor activity centre in the Cairngorms has been held annually for children at Inverness's Crown Primary. Highland Council has cancelled the trip to Craggan to avoid the action. The girl's mother Donna Williamson said her daughter was physically unable to take part in the activities planned. She told BBC Scotland: "She cannot hold a bow and arrow for example, or go kayaking, because she has no upper body strength. "My daughter would have been excluded in that she would have had to stay in the centre while all the kids went off to do the activities. "When she wasn't in the centre she would have been asked to film them kayaking and doing the things she would love to do but she cannot do and I thought that was psychologically a pretty cruel thing to ask a child to do." Another parent at the school, Donald Mackenzie, said he was worried the situation could lead to other activities such as music lessons being stopped. He said there had be a "little bit of give and take" and the activities the children had expected to take part in were not themselves wrong. Danny Alexander, Liberal Democrat MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, said he hoped the trip could still go ahead. He said: "I think it is very sad that the Disability Discrimination Act has been interpreted in this overzealous way by Highland Council given the efforts that the school made to make reasonable adjustments to the trip." 'Tried hard' An alternative trip to Glasgow has also been cancelled by Highland Council. A council spokeswoman said: "In the light of legal advice relating to aspects of the Disability Discrimination Act and subsequent amendments, the decision was taken to cancel two trips organised by the school. "The school has tried hard to accommodate the needs of pupils, but such is the complexity of the legislation governing disability discrimination that the council felt it had no alternative at this stage." She added: "In the new year there will be a concerted effort to provide an appropriate out-of-school excursion for all the children." (my view)-This is EASILY sorted out-take the disabled kid on another trip where she can play and be safe either on her own(accompanied by a teacher)or with other disabled kids because cancelling the trip will make the other kids hate her for the trip being cancelled