Dwarf Student Banned From Cooking Course For Height, Called 'Health, Safety Risk'

A teenage dwarf was branded “a health and safety risk” and banned from going to a college cooking course because of his size in Worcestershire, England. Louis Makepeace who stands at 3ft 10 inches, was refused a place at Heart of Worcestershire College citing his height.

On Aug. 16, he was offered a conditional place for the Hospitality and Catering course, but a few days later the college backtracked and said he was too small for the kitchen.

According to the 18-year-old, the college management said he would be a “safety risk” to the other students and would cause a “disruption” if he got under their feet.

“It was really upsetting as I had my heart set on this course. We are supposed to have equality of opportunity yet I’m not allowed to do something I love doing,” Makepeace said.

“They are simply not prepared to make the necessary adjustments to accommodate me such as making the surfaces and hobs lower. We were prepared to be flexible and my mum said I could maybe do the cooking at home whilst the new equipment was installed but they kept saying no,” he added. “They said I would be a health and safety risk and disruption to the other students and get in their way, which was really humiliating.”

The teenager now fears that his dream of becoming a chef is over.

“All the time I was at school I was always very confident, I had lots of friends and my disability was never an issue. But how am I supposed to get by if this is how I’m treated — I feel like I have been excluded from the real world,” he said.

“My confidence is shrinking and I feel that people stare and laugh at me. People just think I’m still a kid and will push in front of me in queues. I just want to be treated as a normal person without them laughing at me and go around and do quite normal stuff,” he continued.

His mother Pauline said the course leaders told her that there was no point in him doing the course as he would never be allowed to work in any restaurant kitchen anyway, Metro reported.

She is still seeking answers from the college management. The college told her that “it would take seven weeks for contractors to come in to make adjustments such as a lower surface and lower hobs and they weren’t prepared to wait.”

“It wouldn’t be so bad but there was a chap there several years ago who had the same condition as Louie and they adjusted the kitchens for him. I would have thought that would have had the same equipment there that he could use. I keep getting so irate because we were prepared to be flexible and do work from home video a video-link while the adjustments are made. But they just keep fobbing me off with excuses and say he should do another course instead,” she said.

A spokeswoman for Heart of Worcestershire College said, "As the student's place at the college is still under discussion, we do not wish to make a comment,” The Sun reported.

The boy suffers from a condition called achondroplasia, a form of short-limbed dwarfism. It is a rare bone growth disorder that causes disproportionate dwarfism.