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18th September 2021
05:52pm BST
Willow Musgrave, 6, has a life-saving tracheostomy in her throat. Without she would not be able to breathe and as well needing it to survive, she requires 24-hour care.
During the live video, someone had left their microphone on and three women from St Andrew’s CofE Primary School in Kettering, Northamptonshire, were heard laughing and discussing how the medical tube "made them feel sick."
The entire chat was broadcast on Facebook and was watched by more than 12,000 people. The clip below is only brief and you may struggle to hear most of the conversation, but you can hear one individual say "I don't even like looking at it." In the full minute recording, the women in question can be heard complaining: "The mask change for Willow. The mask fitting, it’s awful," as well as saying "It makes me feel queasy. I couldn’t do it." While one admits they know "that’s really horrible" to say, they then go on to joke "You didn’t come into this [job] to be changing tracheostomies". Understandably, Willow's mum Becky Wardiell, 34, was utterly furious over the incident and is now taking legal action against the school. [caption id="attachment_289595" align="alignnone" width="540"]
Credit: SWNS[/caption]
She told SWNS: "Willow can’t defend herself. It’s not her fault she has a tracheostomy. It’s a life or death situation for her. The school drums different values of the week into our children. But then they have teaching staff who speak like that about a child with a disability, what values does that show?"
She went on to ask: "How can you speak about a six-year-old child in that way, whether she’s got disabilities or she hasn’t as an adult and as a teacher that is supposed to teach our kids all these values?"
A spokesman for the Peterborough Diocese Academy Trust, which runs the school, has issued an apology following the incident and have assured they "will be addressing this in greater depth with the staff members concerned."
Moreover, they said that they "will also look at what additional training we can provide to help address any barriers about meeting the medical needs of our pupils."
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