Picture day is one of the biggest days of the school year for kids.
But for one middle school student who is battling cancer, it was one of the most humiliating.
“It was just really humiliating and upsetting for me,” cancer patient Bella Thurston said. “I was trying really hard not to cry. It was just not a good experience.”
Thirteen-year-old Bella Thurston is battling cancer.
“She has ependymoma, which is a brain and spine tumor,” mother Kara Thurston said. “She was first diagnosed when she was 5.”
Some of Bella’s hair had fallen off after recent chemo treatments. It’s why she wears a hat.
So, on picture day at Hoover Middle School, where she says the photographer told her she needed to take her hat off, Bella was stunned.
“He says it’s against policy,” Bella said. “And I was like, ‘Ok, so I can’t wear my hat?’ And he was like, ‘No, you can go fix your hair, take your hat off, or I won’t take your picture,’ and I didn’t let him take my picture because I didn’t feel that I needed to take my hat off in order for him to take my picture.”
Bella’s mom, Kara, was outraged when she found out.
“When something happens to your kid that you can’t fix, it’s heartbreaking, you feel helpless,” Kara said.
Lifetouch photography apologized for what they call a misunderstanding and said in part:
“We have been in touch with the school and have reached out to the family to offer their daughter a complimentary photography session in a place of their choosing. In light of this, we will be revisiting our training protocol with our photographers.”
But Bella says she doesn’t want special treatment because of her cancer.
She just wants to be treated like everyone else.
“I would not like to be singled out,” Bella said. “I would like my picture to be taken the normal way and to be in the same spot that it always is in the yearbook.”
The school district says staffers who work with kids will soon receive more training.