A newsletter was sent to parents from Ramco Primary School on Wednesday informing them that their children were required to dress up as a disabled person on May 29.

Was the school right to cancel "disability day"? Was it in bad taste? See what ninemsn readers had to say.

"There will be prizes for the best students dressed as a person with a disability,” the letter read.

"Get your thinking hats on and see what disability you can represent!"

The money raised was to go to a clinic in Bangladesh that provides surgery for children suffering cleft lips and palates.

But Principal Barrey Nivven told ninemsn the students had abandoned plans for the day after it was branded "bad taste".

"It's not going ahead — the children themselves have taken that decision," Mr Nivven said.

"The emphasis was on physical disability ... what we were looking for was someone who has a broken leg or an arm that’s not functional or a crook eye.

"The point was for students to gain an understanding of what these people have to deal with and to help those less fortunate than us."

Mr Nivven, who said he never planned on dressing as a disabled person, said there would still be a fundraiser but that students were not required to dress up.

The decision has been welcomed by advocates who feared the day would send the wrong message to students.

"People with disabilities have enough trouble being accepting into our community as it is," said Trish Wetton, CEO of disability-support organisation Forsight Foundation.

"What might have lingered after this day? What messages would the children, who are quite young, have taken away?

"It’s a very sensitive area and, depending on how the parents dressed their kids, it could have bordering on discrimination.

“There are better ways to fundraise.” Mr Nivven, meanwhile, said the school hoped to raise at least $200.

"That's enough to provide surgery for one of the children affected by cleft palate or lip who go to the clinic in Bangladesh," he said.

User comments

So it was the childrens decision was it?? Pull the other one. I am a Disabled Pensioner and i can assure you trish Wetton does not speak for me. I think it was an excellent idea to let children know that having a disability is common and no laughing matter. Anyone who suggests there is NO difference between a Disabled person and a helthy one is deluded. And NO I am not talking about a persons worth just a physical difference.

what a hairbrained idea, how about primary teachers concentrate on teaching children how to spell and learn maths. people have enough problems with out their disabilities being highlighted. which part of their body did teachers have their heads in when they came up with this idea.

So people with a disability dress differently to so-called 'normal' people??? How are the children who DO have a disability supposed to dress on the day? Perhaps they could have a "Dress up as a normal person" day?

Horrified!! What WERE they thinking?? How does one dress "disabled?" Were they supposed to go around making sounds and or drooling to represent thier disability? I am absolutely horrified that in this day and age a school of all places would be going out of thier way to try to show how disabled people can be different, when we, as parents, are trying desperately to help them to blend in and become accepted. Sure, teach children tolerance, teach acceptance but DONT teach them that disabled are any different to them and certainly dont make a point of picking out specific features of some disabilities and encouraging children to show these differences. A better idea might have been to have children spend an entire day in a wheel chair or on crutches and make them spend all day like that, then perhaps they would get an insight into a small piece of how difficult life is for many people with disabilities.

To stop these children from learning about disbilities is more offensive than anything. Its not some cheap crack about people with disabilities but an avenue of learning. I thought this would be the most practical way in donig so. Anything can be offensive from a packet of chips when it comes down to it. People need to relax and let it go.

how do disabled people dress? any different from the rest us? we try so hard to make the point that they are the same as the rest us , then make a day so we point that they arent the same. come on guys.

As a parent of a 6 year-old boy with multiple optic gliomas (tumors) and as a Special Educator who works with almost 80 children each week, with diagnosed disabilities... I was very disheartened to read the published article. Like many of those who have previously posted comments, I think that the school's heart was in the right place. However, if we as a community truly intend to embrace inclusion, we need to start in preschools and schools - and more importantly at home. My little boy is different. He is bright and independent, and has a larger than life personality, and he doesn't see very well. Walking through our local shopping centre is at times - confronting, due to numerous comments and stares from adults and children. This is because my son Benjamin uses a cane. Our community is formed through difference and diversity. And that's ok. It's part of our human-ness to be different. It's part of our human-ness to be unique, but it's part of our development to understand that.

They did this in South Park where the nurse had a disability (It was a foetus attached to the side of her head) and the whole town dressed up like her. The South Park writers recognised this as bad taste so much so they wrote an episode about it. How they missed this as being in bad taste is beyond me... funny as hell though LOL.

A REPLY TO 'BUILD A BRIDGE' You obviously have never had to deal with anyone with a disability. If you had, you would understand why so many of us are horrified with this day. Spend some time with the disabled, then talk.

Children need to grow up with an acceptance and understanding of everything and everyone around them. Children should be taught that disabled people aren't good or bad, just people with speacial needs. Heaven forbid if a teacher or school should try to further develop the children's empathic abilities. Trust "adults" to stuff that idea up. Understanding beats ignorance any day of the week. I hope the complainers put their hands in their own pockets for the money that would have been raised!

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