Mom: 3-Year-Old Daughter Discriminated Against for School Photo

Rachel Bertsche
·Writer
Updated

Mom: 3-Year-Old Daughter Discriminated Against for School Photo

The mother of a 3-year-old girl is hoping to raise awareness for how school photographers treat special needs students after her daughter’s school pictures were nearly unrecognizable, she says.

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Abby Lubiewski was born with cataracts, the result of a genetic syndrome called Hallermann-Streiff. Without her thick glasses, she is legally blind. So when mom Amanda Lubiewski received Abby’s pictures last week, she was alarmed to see that her little girl wasn’t wearing her glasses. “My baby girl loves her glasses and needs them to function to the best of her ability,” Lubiewski wrote on Facebook. “She is a strong, confident girl and deserves to show off every beautiful part of her, including her glasses.”

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Abby Lubiewski, 3, is legally blind but was told to take her glasses off for her school picture, her mother Amanda Lubiewski says. (Photo: Fox 2 News)

Lubiewski did not respond to Yahoo Parenting’s request for comment.

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The O’Fallon, Mo., mom noted online that Abby’s thick glasses can cause a glare in photos, but said the photographer at LifeTouch School Photography, the company behind the photo, should have worked around that.

Even Abby could tell she looked different in her photo. “What happened to my glasses?” she asked Fox 2 News.

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Abby Lubiewski was born with cataracts, due to a rare genetic disorder. (Photo: Fox 2 News) 

Lubiewski said she could tell her daughter was uncomfortable in the picture from her strained smile. “I knew [when I looked at the picture] that she couldn’t see, and I couldn’t quite comprehend what would be going through someone’s mind to ask her to take those off,” she told Fox 2.

Additionally, the photo was intended to be used as identification if Abby were to ever go missing. “This is very unsafe for her, because her picture doesn’t look like her without her glasses,” she said.

Other children were allowed to keep their glasses on, according to Fox 2, which is why Lubiewski believes Abby’s were removed because of the glare caused by her glasses’ thickness. “It’s not just about getting a cute picture of her,” Lubiewski told Fox 2. “It’s how she was treated, and how it seems like she was treated differently because there was a part of her that was difficult to photograph.”

LifeTouch School Photography didn’t respond to Yahoo Parenting’s request for comment, but the company did apologize to Lubiewski on Facebook. “We should have never had your daughter remove her glasses for the photo, and there is no excuse for that,” they wrote. “We would like to offer you retakes free of charge.” Abby will get new photos taken next week, according to Fox 2.

Though Abby will get new photos, Lubiewski says the issue is bigger than just one child. As she wrote on Facebook, “Photographers for school pictures need to be trained on how to capture each unique child, including those with disabilities.”

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