Mother makes video tribute after her special needs daughter wasn't invited to school dance

A mother in Sydney, Australia has made a video tribute to her 16-year-old special needs daughter after she wasn't invited to her year's school dance. Julie Webster posted the video tribute to her daughter Josie on YouTube after discovering about the event on Facebook. "She may not get to dress up and dance," Ms Webster says. "But … I will continue to dance with her, even if no one else does."



Josie has Down's Syndrome, she goes on to say, but that has not stopped her from living life to the fullest. She pays drums, dances and goes on adventure holidays. In her short life, she has braved the Shotgun River in New Zealand, journeyed to Uluru in Central Australia and crawled through the Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam. But last Thursday, Engadine High School in southern Sydney held its Year Ten school formal and didn't invite Josie.

The school dance was a lavish affair at Doltone House, which is just 20 minutes from Josie's school. Every Year Ten pupil, except four special needs students including Josie, were invited. The girls dolled themselves up in party dresses, the boys donned suits and ties and the excited teenagers jumped into hired Hummers and headed off for their big night. Afterwards, they posted photographs of themselves beaming in their party clothes on Facebook.


YouTube link.

Until then, neither Josie nor her mother, Julie Webster, knew a Year Ten school formal had even been planned. "She was devastated," Ms Webster said. To top it off, proceeds from ticket sales for the dance were going to fund the Engadine High School special needs unit where Josie is among a number of students with "mild" or "moderate" learning difficulties. Engadine High principal Joanne Jarvis refused to comment but informed Ms Webster that staff had no involvement in the party.