in brief: girl barred from school for eating disorder

A 16-year-old British girl has been banned from her high school amid fears hear eating disorder could inspire copycat behaviour from peers.

Lottie Twiselton spent one year in a clinic after almost succumbing to anorexia nervosa, before being cleared to start studying again.

But she was barred from re-enrolling at the school she’d attended since she was three years old.

Lottie’s parents say she was a popular figure at the AU$22,000-per-year school.

They consider her exclusion from the institution to be due to a perceived influence her eating disorder could have over her schoolmates, particularly as pro-ana and -mia blogs gather momentum on the internet.

‘People suffering from anorexia are encouraged to work towards a goal and Lottie was working towards getting back to school to be with her friends’ her father, Robert told the UK tabloid, the Mirror.

‘This was taken away from her.’

She was to recommence her education part-time and still using a nasal tube, with the school claiming her health is the basis for her rejection.

However, it raises questions as to whether students suffering from other physical illness would receive the same treatment.

‘I was completely ready to get back to normal but I was told the school weren’t able to have me back,’ Lottie told the Mirror.

‘It would have given me such a boost.’

She is now studying for her GCSEs (year 10 exams) at another school.