Lottie's experience

An anorexic girl was suspended from a private school in case she started 'copycat' cases.

Lottie's mother said: "Without a doubt one of the main reasons Lottie wasn't allowed back to school was because she was someone who lots of people looked up to. In the head teacher's eyes, she may well have inspired copycat disorders". "She became obsessed with her weight and appearance. She would look at pictures of celebrities in magazines and on the internet and was convinced she was fat and ugly."

Lottie Twiselton, 16 years old, has spent the last two years fighting with the eating disorder- one of this years in the hospital. But, when she recover and was ready to rejoin her classmates at the Northamption High School, they told her, her inclusion "would be too disruptive".

Lottie left school to go to London in a specialist clinic after she developed that disorder at the age of 14.

When she could leave the hospital she hoped to go back to school but school said it didn't want her to return until she was well enough.

Now, Lottie is in a new school, Quinton House School, in Upton. The fact that she was rejected from her school was devastating. She said: "I was very upset about it. I almost died and without the support of my friends I would not have pulled trough". "I was completely ready to go back and be with them and just get back to normal but I was told the school weren't able to have me back. It would have given me such a boost to my progress".

Lottie's father, Robert, has also attacked the school. He said: "The school's response to Lottie coming back was pretty poor. People suffering from anorexia are encouraged to work towards a particular goal and Lottie was working towards getting back into school and to be with her friends. This was all taken away from her when the head teacher made it clear she was not welcome back. Lottie has shown remarkable courage and determination to get this point. Anorexia, particularly amongst teenage girls is not as uncommon as people think and schools need to be aware of that."

He was worried about his daughter's life.

"At its worst, we thought this might be it for Lottie. She needed to be forcibly fed through a tube and she went from a happy, healthy teenager to nothing at all. Claire and I divorced a few years ago and we have considered whether this had an impact on Lottie."

School answered: "The school responded to say that they were very keen to support Lottie’s integration but remained of the view that it would be preferable to wait until Lottie was well enough to return on a full-time basis.  The health and well being of our pupils is at the heart of everything we do... The professional view of the head and her team was that an interrupted part-time programme in a crucial year would not be in the interests of Lottie’s welfare or education. To say that Lottie was excluded is simply not true as is the assertion we were concerned about copycat issues. In school our approach is very pro-active and open in talking about and raising awareness of such issues through a variety of means including PSHCE lessons, tutorial support, extra-curricular sessions where guest speakers address the girls and parent talks/workshops, as well as having a full time nurse and the services of a school counsellor.'

I think that Lottie is very courageous. However, how the school has reacted is very sad because, Lottie recovered and school administration rejected her just to not have any problems and that's not correct.