COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. — A Collierville gymnastics center is catching heat from parents after not including their children with disabilities.
According to the SEGA Gymnastics website, the gym is a space for all children to come together to build physical strength, make new friends, and have a fun time. Although, parents say that’s far from the truth if your child has a disability.
“It is incredibly disappointing because they don’t mean all children. They mean typical children. They mean typical children that can behave to their standards,” said Tiffany Harvey.
Brooks was diagnosed with autism at a young age. His mother and grandmother wanted to plan his fifth birthday in May at SEGA Gymnastics because he loves to jump.
His family told us they went to the indoor trampoline business on Mid-South Cove on Monday. Brooks’ grandmother, Tiffany Harvey said everything was great until she told the manager about Brooks’ challenges.
“It became a different conversation and he really started to backtrack about hosting a party with kids with disabilities,” said Tiffany.
She even tried comprising with the manager.
“It just was clear he was not willing to budge,” Tiffany said.
After sharing her experience on Facebook, she realized this was not the business’s first time doing this.
“To see other people come out and say they have experienced or they also witnessed this type of behavior and discrimination towards the disability community,” said Brooks’ mother, Gabrielle Harvey.
According to the CDC, one in 36 children in the United States has an autism diagnosis.
“Those are all the kids you are saying are not worthy of having a party here,” said Tiffany. “He’s just a little boy who wants to have a birthday party and wants to have his friends there,” Tiffany said.
They believe every child whether they have a disability or not deserves to enjoy their fifth birthday.
“I just want to see a little more willingness to learn and educate and provide places where we can take our children where they can just be kids,” Gabrielle said.
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SEGA said the following in a statement to WREG:
“We would like to address this unfortunate situation. My wife and I reached out and sincerely apologized and discussed how we can do better moving forward.
It is not our policy at SEGA to turn away or not include special needs children in our parties. We now realize changes need to be made and will be doing so to ensure that all children will be included in the birthday festivities.”