Disgust at special needs girl ban

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/7863756.stm

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The mother of an 11-year-old girl with special needs said she was "disgusted" at a ruling which banned her daughter from representing her school in sports.

Shannon Sloyan, of Coventry, was born prematurely and has hearing problems.

As a result she is a year behind at school and is older than everyone else at Christ the King RC Junior School.

But the Coventry Primary School Sports Association has ruled she is too old and would have an "unfair advantage" over the other children.

Shannon, who has said sport is her favourite subject at school, wanted to compete for her school in a cross country running competition.Doctors told her parents she might die when she was born premature

When she was born premature, doctors told her parents she was likely to die.

Her mother Linda said: "I'm disgusted that they should even bring this up. She would be very upset not to take part with her peers."

Headteacher Elizabeth Burnett said: "We had a phone call to say that Shannon wasn't allowed to participate in sports event because technically she should be in a senior school.

"As a school we hadn't even considered that as a problem because as far as we're concerned she had always been in this particular year group."