"I'm a dwarf, I can't go any faster": Disabled mum faces court over child's lateness to school
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A mother with dwarfism is being hauled to court by education bosses because she can’t get her son to school on time.
Michelle Harris, 32, says she often struggles to drop off her seven-year-old at school without being late.
Yet instead of showing understanding for her disability, she claims authorities are trying to penalise her.
Later this month she is due in court and facing a fine for her boy’s “failure to regularly attend school”.
But she disputes this, claiming because he was too late for registration he was marked as absent.
Michelle said senior school figures had advised her to leave earlier to make it on time.
(Image: Sonja Horsman)
She said: “I’m a dwarf, I can’t go any faster. I can’t run like other people. I already get up at 6.30am but when I wake my hip is in agony.”
The 3ft 6in mum was born with a degenerative joint condition known as pseudoachondroplasia.
She has a curvature of the spine, a knee misalignment and will need a hip operation.
The condition leaves her in crippling pain. When she wakes she needs a bath to ease the agony.
She said: “I can only go as quick as I can. I can’t walk fast, I can’t walk far. They should be asking how I cope and if they can help, not pointing the finger at me.
“I need help but there’s no provision for people who have my condition. It’s unjust to fine someone on the basis of their limitations.”
Welfare officers from Redbridge Council in East London raised concerns about the situation and put her in touch with a voluntary organisation.
But she declined its help because it would have meant a different person each day escorting her son to the school gates.
Michelle, a freelance writer, said: “I try to live a normal life despite my disability. I don’t draw my curtains and think the world is too much to bare. I try and get on with it.
(Image: Googlemaps)
“To me it’s important to get ready before I leave the house looking respectable. The world already stares at me and I don’t want people looking at me and feeling sorry for me. I want to change people’s perceptions.”
Records show her son attended 71 per cent of a possible 114 times at Nightingale Primary School in South Woodford during the last term of the 2016/17 year.
Michelle, of Ilford, has appealed against a penalty notice issued for “persistent lateness” which the school said it had been issued correctly.
She said: “I’ve always maintained that my disability will not affect my son’s education.
“It is unfair that I’m being penalised due to my ­disability. I’m a single mum with no support – I have to do this all by myself. If there was fund to help people like me that would change my life. I’m trying to do everything I can as a single mother but I’m half the size.”
Michelle is due at Barkingside Magistrates Court on February 16.
Redbridge Council was approached for a comment.