Disabled presenter ‘scares children’
Vitriolic comments and complaints to BBC spark angry backlash by charities and parents in support of CBeebies’ Cerrie Burnell
Disparaging comments by adults about a children’s presenter have led to an angry backlash in support of Cerrie Burnell, the 29-year-old CBeebies host who was born missing the lower section of her right arm. One man said that he would stop his daughter from watching the BBC children’s channel because Burnell would give his child nightmares.
Parents even called the broadcaster to complain after Burnell, with Alex Winters, took over the channel’s popular Do and Discover slot and The Bedtime Hour programme last month, to complain about her disability.
And some of the vitriolic comments on the “Grown Up” section of the channel’s website were so nasty that they had to be removed.
“Is it just me, or does anyone else think the new woman presenter on CBeebies may scare the kids because of her disability?” wrote one adult on the CBeebies website. Other adults claimed that their children were asking difficult questions as a result. “I didn’t want to let my children watch the filler bits on The Bedtime Hour last night because I know it would have played on my eldest daughter’s mind and possibly caused sleep problems,” said one message. The BBC received nine other complaints by phone.
While charities reacted angrily to the criticism of the children’s presenter, calling the comments disturbing, other parents and carers labelled the remarks as disgraceful, writing in support of Burnell and setting up a “fight disability prejudice” page on the social networking site Facebook.
“I think that it is great that Cerrie is on CBeebies. She is an inspiration to children and we should not underestimate their ability to understand and accept that all of us have differences – some visible and some not,” wrote “Surfergirlboosmum”. Other websites were flooded with equally supportive comments. “I feel we should all post counter complaints to the BBC and I’m sure they will receive more complaints about the fact they have even considered accepting these complaints,” wrote Scott Tostevin on Facebook. “Its a disgrace that people still have such negative views against people who are ‘different’,” he added.
Burnell, who described her first television presenting role as a “dream job”, has also appeared in EastEnders and Holby City and has been feted for performances in the theatre while also worked as a teaching assistant at a special needs school in London. She also has a four-year-old child. “I think the negative comments from those few parents are indicative of a wider problem of disabled representation in the media as a whole, which is why it’s so important for there to be more disabled role models in every area of the media,” she said in response yesterday.
“The support that I’ve received … has been truly heartening. It’s brilliant that parents are able to use me as a way of talking about disability with their children and for children who are similarly disabled to see what really is possible in life and for their worlds to be represented in such a positive, high profile manner.”
Charities said that much still needed to be done to change perceptions in society. “In some way it is a pretty sad commentary on the way society is now and that both parents and children see few examples of disabled people. The sooner children are exposed to disability in mainstream education the better,” said Mark Shrimpton at Radar, the UK’s largest disability campaigning organisation. “She is a role model for other disabled people.”
Rosemary Bolinger, a trustee at Scope, a charity for people with cerebral palsy, said: “It is disturbing that some parents have reacted in this way … Unfortunately disabled people are generally invisible in the media and wider society.”
View all comments that have been posted about this article.
Offensive or abusive comments will be removed and your IP logged and may be used to prevent further submission. In submitting a comment to the site, you agree to be bound by the Independent Minds Terms of Service.
- Print Article
- Email Article
-
Click here for copyright permissions
Copyright 2009 Independent News and Media Limited





Comments
Some of the adults I have encountered however have been downright rude. The look of horror and disgust on one of my 'schoolfriends' faces' I can still picture now, over six years later.
As a 'person with a disability' to use the correct term, I have found it easier for people to ask than just to stare, we are not a freak show or some strange medical experiment gone wrong! Smile and you might find that we are human like everyone else.
Thanks to the excellent care and help I have received from the NHS at The Royal National Orthopedic Hospital and the Physiotherapy Dept. at The Jersey General Hospital, I no longer have to endure those stares.
I wish Cerrie Burnell all the best and hope the 'adults' grow up and take a lesson from their children, disability is not a disease!
Any child that finds this presenter frightening has probably picked up some other major issues from its own parents.
My 6yr old daughter like I'm sure most children would find the woman curious, ask what happened to her, express sympathy and then except her as just another person who looks a little different.
Children are far better than adults at accepting anything that for them is different.
I just hope that all the idiot parents who have the problems never have a disabled child. I also hope that the BBC show a little back bone for once and tell everyone who has complained about Cerrie to get stuffed.
Good luck to the lady, children could do with a bit more reality in their lives.
Glenn Kirkindall
Portland, Oregon
USA
Yes, kids sometimes get scared when they see someone who looks different. That doesn't mean that the person is actually a threat, though - and so he/she should therefore not be humiliated and treated as a threat.
I hate paranoid/overprotective parents who think they have a right to infringe on everyone else's liberty.
Stupid parents - don't "protect" your children from something/someone that isn't actually dangerous - talk to them!!!
It is the way they are taught - & there's nothing to be scared about!
Teaching children to be prejudiced is disgraceful.
If parents are worried about how their children will react to Cerrie's appearance, surely they only have to explain to them how she came to be that way. Isn't this what parenting is? The alternative is to leave them untended in front of the telly to drag themselves up. Parents have to involve themselves at some point.
If a child's issues about disability are handled with understanding and a desire to inform factually but sensitively, children will generally move on satisfied and become a more rounded individual for it.
Shame on those parents who project their own fears about disability onto their children: I wonder if these would be the same people who would once have gone to a 'freak' show for cheap titillation?
The level of ignorance displayed by these total charlatans should be upsetting to all who stand for decency and humanity.
They will never know nor appreciate the courage displayed by Miss Burnell and the BBC for all their past performances, must today be applauded for enlightening the nation and for trying to educate the un educated.
We should be teaching our children about the real world.
Give them the tools to lead positive lives and not inhert our predjuices.
Disability exists , do dot hide it.
Ridiculous
My 2 year old son watches the bed time hour on CBeebies most nights (we find it helps relax him before he goes to bed) and he has no such prejudices - I'd be concerned if he did. I confess I did a double take when Cerrie Burnell first appeared on the bedtime hour (was it last month?), but that was because I thought she was more lovely eye candy for the watching dads. It was only a few days later when I noticed that her lower arm was missing. Big deal for me: no! Big deal for my son: no! My son hasn't even asked about it - if he did ask any "difficult" questions, I'd do the grown-up thing and explain as best as I could.
My son also loves Something Special (the CBeebies programme for children with special needs) and presented by the fantastic Justin. Do these bizarre parents also worry that their (presumably perfect) children will be scared by watching that?
(Hmm, it sounds like my son watches more TV than he actually does. It's only a little at bedtime and an occasional treat during the day when we need to keep him occupied while we do something. Honest! :) )
it is truly heartening as a disabled activist myself, to see such great support of Cerrie from disabled people and parents alike.
Clair Lewis
DAN - Disabled people's Direct Action Network
You know what, that's what being a grown up is all about: having the basic human decency to think through your attitudes, and to have the strength to answer kids' difficult questions as honestly and well as you can (referring them to others or helping them to look up the answers if you're unsure).
How bloody sad that we're still dealing with (or failing to deal with) this sort of thing in the 21st century.
Good on the sane and reasonable parents who support this presenter.
Plus Big Cook flies around on what can only be described as a witches broom, that's the stuff of nightmares.