11 year old Maddie Stevens was excited about her end-of-year school outing. She’d had a hard time after the death of her mother that year, and was looking forward to a treat with her friends before they moved on to different schools.
But Maddie and her dad were shocked to hear that she was banned from taking part in the school trip because she had missed a day of school during the year – to attend her mother’s funeral.
Maddie’s mother died after a two year battle with breast cancer. Despite the devastating incident, the little girl and her family fought to move on with their lives, and Maddie missed only one day of school that year, the day of her mother’s funeral.
“Maddie has been absolutely amazing since her mom died,” her father Andy tells The Coventry Telegraph.
“She took only one day off to go the funeral, because we wanted to keep things as normal for her as we could. But even if she’d taken a week off I’d be saying this. After all that, she gets this kick in the face.”
Even after dad Andy spoke to the school, they remained adament that Maddie would be excluded from attending the school trip with all of her friends.
“It made me feel sad not to go,” Maddie tells the Coventry Telegraph. “It would have been a nice treat. Helping my mom for the past two years has been hard.”
Andy says that the school administration has still refused to apologize for their heartless treatment of his daughter.
“I get more and more angry each time I think about it, and I’m amazed they didn’t apologize to Maddie,” he says.
Maddie’s school later released a statment, after much public outrage over the incident.
“Following concerns raised, the rewarding of pupils for 100% attendance has been withdrawn,” the school said.
This is just unbelievable. Who made this decision and how could they possibly refuse to acknowledge the special circumstances here? I wish Maddie all the best – she’s a very strong little girl.
Let us know what you think about the school’s decision in the comments section, and don’t forget to share this story with your friends on Facebook.
Published by Newsner. Please like.
