A gang of schoolboys who abused a severely autistic girl and her mother in an Inverness supermarket sparked an online hunt by their head teacher.
The group of boys was thrown out of Morrisons by security guards because of their behaviour in front of Sylvia Gilham and her daughter Milly.
Ten-year-old Milly lives with severe autism and West Syndrome, a form of epilepsy.
The gang who picked on her were only identified by their Millburn Academy uniforms – but rector Gavin Maclean took matters into his own hands when he heard about the incident.
He took the unprecedented step of using the school’s social media pages to ask for help identifying the pupils, describing their behaviour as “despicable”.
Mrs Gilham, 43, said this week’s incident was not isolated – and called on people to be more considerate in how they respond to people with special needs.
She met the head teacher yesterday – and afterwards the school issued an update saying that the pupils have been identified and “appropriate action” is being taken.
She praised the school for their “amazing” response – while the Highland Council’s director of education Bill Alexander also praised their “good and bold” approach to dealing with the behaviour of their pupils.
Mrs Gilham and Milly, who attends Drummond School, were in Morrisons after school hours when they were accosted.
She said: “There was one boy being silly and laughing and pointing.
“Milly was in her buggy and she made her little happy noise.
“They were all thrown out but it was mainly the one boy, the rest of them were just looking to see what he was laughing and pointing at.”
She said that staff in Morrisons were always very helpful during their visits – and also praised the school for their response.
She said: “The school has been amazing really because it all happened outside school hours.
“They’ve taken it all very seriously and I was encouraged by meeting the head teacher.
“They could quite easily have washed their hands of it.”
However, she said it wasn’t an isolated incident and called on people to be more considerate in how they respond to people with special needs.
She said: “It happens a lot.
“I think people see Milly and think she’s a bit big to be in a pram and think it’s funny.
“They don’t think what their responses might look like.”
She added: “I would encourage people to think a bit more about how they respond to people with special needs.
“It can be really hurtful just seeing a funny look or something worse than that.
“People deserve to be treated with respect.”
Rector Mr Maclean accepted his intervention was a “very public step”.
He said that the incident had been raised with him by other pupils after it was highlighted on another social media site.
He said: “We work hard to teach about fairness, equality and diversity in classes, assemblies and in direct contact with pupils.
“This was brought to me by pupils who do not wish to be associated with this behaviour and do not want our school to be thought of in this way.
“On behalf of the Millburn Academy community, I apologise for this conduct which frankly is despicable.”
In a later update the school confirmed that the pupils had been identified and their parents were being contacted.
Bill Alexander, Highland Council’s director of care and learning, said: “Millburn Academy has taken a good and bold approach which I fully support in addressing the behaviour of its pupils within the local community.
“There is a joint responsibility between the school, parents and young people for pupil behaviour and the school is taking positive action to deal with allegations of misbehaviour where reported.”
