A furious mum claims that her son was excluded from a nativity play at his nursery because he doesn't speak.
Tilly Carrie, from Wolverhampton, says three-year-old Ace was not allowed to take part in the Christmas show as his participation would "spoil it for the other children".
The mum-of-two says her son is non-verbal, although he has not yet received an official diagnosis, and that another boy who doesn't talk was also banned from the event.
She filed a complaint with the daycare, which has an Outstanding rating from Ofsted, and an internal investigation was carried out.
However, the inquiry concluded that the nursery had acted in line with its protocol, Birmingham Live reports.
Ms Carrie has since moved her son to a new nursery where she says he is "very happy".
But the 30-year-old feels her son was discriminated against and now she is planning to appeal the decision with the school's board of governors. A new investigation by the nursery is now underway.
The nursery said the event was a Christmas event and not a nativity play.
Ms Carrie told BlackCountryLive: "He is not diagnosed autistic but he is on the pathway, he is in the middle of the diagnosis.
"He is non-verbal at the moment., he can't speak and uses sign language. They excluded him and another non-verbal boy from the play because they said he couldn't talk and would spoil it for the 'normal kids'."
Ms Carrie said she only found out about the decision two days before the play was due to take place, on December 18, when she was called to the nursery's office. "I had no idea they were going to exclude him," she said.
"I was actually looking forward to watching him and seeing how they would include him in the play. They said 'just to let you know, Ace can't take part in the play'.
"They said 'Ace won't stick to the play, he will spoil it for the other children'. I was shocked as it was so unexpected - I went to the nursery the next day and said 'you can't discriminate him against like that'.
"It says on their website that they are able to include all children, whether they have got special education needs (or not)." Ms Carrie claims the nursery offered to hold a separate nativity play just for Ace and the other child but she refused.
"I said if they are not good enough for the main play, I don't want them to have their own play, that is discrimination," she said.
She says the nursery was going to "take away" the boys to a different room while the play took place but she and the other mum took their children to a play centre instead of on the day.
The nursery has a policy on its website stating it "strives to be fully inclusive for all its children and actively seeks to remove barriers to learning and participation, which could hinder or exclude individual children or groups of children."
Although the incident took place in December, Ms Carrie received a letter from the nursery on Thursday, March 31, stating that an internal investigation had been carried out.
The letter was signed by the chair of the school's board of governors, Cllr Phil Bateman. The nursery is governed by the Ashmore Park and Phoenix Nursery Schools Federation.
Cllr Bateman said he was satisfied that the senior leadership team "who were involved in your formal complaint, tried to mitigate and ameliorate the situation".
He said he was also satisfied that the nursery had "complied with processes and policies" adopted by the board, concluding: "I'm sorry that this matter has come to this situation and that you and Ace have been upset by the issue."
Ms Carrie said she will continue fighting for her son's rights. She added: "It spoilt my Christmas.
"My son doesn't have a voice at the moment, I am his voice. There are ways that he could have been included in the play before excluding him.
"I feel like they wanted the perfect play but took away the joy of three-year-olds getting into the Christmas spirit."
The nursery is run by Wolverhampton Council.
In response to the story, a spokesperson for the council said: "The youngster was able to take part in a wide range of special activities which were held at Ashmore Park Nursery over the festive period, including a Christmas party, festive crafts and a puppet show.
"The school maintains that every effort was made to enable him to participate in the Christmas stories and song session in a way that would not be detrimental to his health and wellbeing, but that the adjustments suggested were declined by the parent. The school regrets any upset caused for all the parties involved.
"Given that there is an ongoing investigation into the matter, it would by inappropriate to comment further at this time."
