Many of us have made the mistake of sending a text to the wrong person or not hanging up the phone when we think we’ve already had.
And sometimes those situations have left us with our foot in our mouths.
But we’ve probably never made disparaging comments about a child in the process. Unfortunately, that’s what staff members at the Three Spires Academy in Coventry did.
They made some unkind comments about Leighann Bromley’s autistic son Harley that made her furious. And rightfully so!
Bromley, 29, said she was shocked by what she heard when she listened to a voicemail from her son’s school.
The called to check in on 10-year-old Haley who had stayed home from school because he was sick with a cold. They wanted to know if he was feeling better and when he would return home from school.
Bromley didn’t pick up so the school left a voicemail. The school’s staff member, however, forgot to hang up the phone.
She can be heard making insulting comments about Harley over the voicemail.
Not only was she saying hurtful things about the little boy, she was also using expletives which made it even more offensive.
Here’s the Daily Mail’s transcript of the voicemail:
Woman: Hi Leighanne. I was just ringing to see how Harley is. Alright, well I’ll speak to you later, bye.
(Puts down phone, believing she had hung up)
Woman: And make sure he’s off all f***king week.
Man: What about two weeks?
Woman: Well don’t tell her that.
(Inaudible)
Man: Oh yeah, (woman) just wanted to make sure that Harley is off all week, and the second question is could you keep him off next week as well.
Woman: Yes please, till the end of the year.
(Inaudible)
Man: Don’t bring him back until the 27th of July when (inaudible) we are closed.
(Loud laughter)
She was aghast and heartbroken over what she heard.
“My jaw just hit the floor,” she told DailyMail. “I was gobsmacked and horrified someone who is entrusted with my son’s care had that attitude towards him.”
The comments were especially hard to hear because Harley had a difficult year struggling with behavioral issues that Bromley had to meet with the school to figure out how best to deal with them.
But she says those issues were minor and he hadn’t had any issue before that in his three-and-a-half years at the school.
She immediately reported the issue to the school’s headmaster Rob Jones but felt as if they were trying to “sweep it under the carpet.
“I think both staff members should be fired. But at the very least suspended while an investigation takes place,” Bromley told BBC.
Instead, the school gave the man a verbal warning and the woman a written warning.
“I asked if they could move him temporarily into another class so he is away from the people involved but they poo-pooed the idea. I’m left in an impossible situation where I don’t want to send him in but I could get in trouble if I don’t,” Bromley said. “I’m still sending him but I’m not happy and nervous about how he’s being treated but I feel I don’t have a choice.”
Unhappy with the outcome, she decided to make the recording of the call public after the school sent parents a text message warning them of some possible negative news stories being reported.
The school did issue an apology to Bromley on the school’s website.
“We offer a full and sincere apology to Leighanne Bromley. This type of behavior is not acceptable and goes against the values of our school,” It read. “We are taking this matter seriously and a full internal investigation is taking place and robust action will be taken where appropriate.”
The school ended up suspending one of their staff members as a result but the investigation is ongoing.
You can hear the recording below.
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