A teenager with Down syndrome has been flooded with support after they were left out of a cheerleading team photograph.
Morgyn Arnold, 14, who lives with Down syndrome, is the manager of the Utah-based Shoreline Junior High's cheerleading squad and she recently posed for photographs with the rest of the team.
However, the teenager was left devastated when the school chose a picture without her in it for publication in their yearbook.
"She came home from school and was showing us her yearbook," her sister Jordyn Poll told TODAY Parents. "She said 'There's my team and there's my friends and I'm not included.' She was devastated."
Arnold's older sister, Jordyn Poll, subsequently took to Facebook to call out the school for their actions, writing: "I hope that no one ever has to experience the heartbreak that comes when the person they love comes home from school devastated and shows them that they're not in the picture with their team."
She said that her sister was so upset because she'd worked hard to be a part of the team and had "spent hours learning dances, showing up to games, and cheering on her school and friends."
Poll's Facebook post did not go unnoticed and people were quick to flood the comments section with messages of support.
Daily Mail reports that school administrators have now responded to the incident and said that the decision to use the picture without Morgyn was a "mistake".
"We are continuing to look at what has occurred and why it occurred," they wrote on Facebook.
"Apologies have been made to the family and we sincerely apologize to others impacted by this error. We will continue to address it with the parents of the student. We will continue to look at our processes to ensure this does not happen again."
However, Poll has rejected the school's apology and said that this is not the first time that her sister has been left out.
But she made a point of explaining that the other girls on the team have never been possible for leaving her sister out.
"This is the second time in three years that sweet Morgyn has been left out of the yearbook. Two years ago they didn't even include her in the class list," Poll proclaimed on Facebook.
"We contacted the school administration this year, and the answer we got was as ignorant as the photo. To the Shoreline Junior administrator who blatantly said they didn't know what we were expecting of them & there was nothing they could do, I hope you can take this away – you can be better and I expect you to be better."
