Hannah Spencer is campaigning to protect disabled kids in school fires

Hannah Spencer is campaigning to protect disabled children in school fires. Spencer shared on her Instagram that she is working with a young constituent to make schools safer for disabled children.

The new Green MP for Denton and Gorton shared the story of Lucas Vezza-O’Brien, a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy. Last year during a fire at his school Vezza-O’Brien was left behind as an assessment was made that the fire service and staff couldn’t get him out of the classroom.

Spencer said

He was left behind whilst alarms were ringing and the smell of smoke started to spread.

Being left behind during fires is reality for disabled people

This sounds like an absolutely terrifying and unimaginable situation, but for wheelchair users and other disabled people, it’s reality. In 2023, Dr Hannah Barham-Brown made headlines after she was left behind during a fire alarm at the Premier Inn she was staying in. Dr Barham-Brown had to be assisted out by friends, and if it had been a real fire she would’ve been left to die by the hotel staff.

We also learnt from Grenfell just how little housing associations and building companies give a fuck about protecting disabled people. 72 people died in the Grenfell tower block fire, many of whom were disabled and had their concerns ignored. Grenfell was an exercise in what happens when you neglect marginalised people and care more about taking their rents.

As Spencer shared, Vezza-O’Brien is campaigning to make sure that no other disabled school children face the ‘same horrendous experience’. The teenager has unpicked fire regulations for schools and started the #NoStudentLeftBehind campaign. His parliamentary petition got over 104,000 signatures. Spencer says she met with him as his MP and they will be attending a meeting with a government minister to ‘try and change the law’

Hannah Spencer is working for disabled people

Spencer and Vezza-O’Brien are both adamant in the stance that the schools or fire service ‘did nothing wrong’, but the law needs changing because there’s no requirement for schools to have evacuation chairs to get disabled people out in emergencies.

Spencer said

The law currently is too loose and vague. It needs changing. And thanks to Lucas, there’s now a lot of awareness and pressure building.

Of Vezza-O’Brien, Spencer said

It’s always very special to get to meet someone who clearly is a passionate activist – trying to challenge a complex legal and political system. But what I find most humbling here is that Lucas isn’t doing any of this for his own benefit, he’s doing it to make sure no other school pupil ever goes through the experience he had. He called his campaign #NoStudentLeftBehind and wants to stop this happening to anyone else.

Spencer said she is ‘honoured to play a very small part in this’ and hopes to help change the law so all pupils are safe in emergencies.

Though Spencer is just getting started as an MP, it’s clear she cares about disability rights. Something which we don’t see enough in Westminster. In her acceptance speech, Spencer was clear to state that she would serve all constituents, not just ‘taxpayers’ or ‘working people’.

She said

And I think that if you’re not able to work that you should still have a nice life. I think that absolutely everybody should get a nice life. And clearly, I’m not the only person who thinks that.

And in her maiden speech in parliament, she said she would work for:

the disabled people who can’t access the world because of structural inequality that is completely fixable.

It’s refreshing to finally have a politician who cares about actually fighting for disabled people, and not just when it’s gaining headlines. Let’s hope this continues with the Green Party’s rise

Featured image via the Canary

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

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