Scots parents are being urged not to take part in a sick new TikTok challenge which sees them encouraging children to mock people with disabilities.
The 'New Teacher Challenge' has been doing the rounds on the social media platform and has been slammed by disability activists.
The trend has racked up more than 100 million views. In the videos the format is always the same; the parent films themselves showing their child a picture of 'their new teacher', but the picture is actually of someone who is disabled.
In most of the videos the children recoil in fear or shout 'ewww'.
Two of the women featured in the sick trend have spoken out against it and urged parents to stop teaching their children to mock people who are different from them.
Lizzie Velasquez, who has an extremely rare congenital disease called Marfanoid–progeroid–lipodystrophy syndrome that prevents her from accumulating body fat and gaining weight and affects her facial structure, is one of the women whose picture is being used in the shameful prank.
Lizzie, who is a motivational speaker, activist and YouTuber, took to TikTok to call out parents taking part in the challenge.
She said: "If you are an adult who has a young human in your life please do not teach them that being scared of someone who doesn't look like them is OK, please.
"Everything they need to know about having empathy and being kind to one another starts at home.
"Speaking to CNN she added: "What lesson is really being taught here. They don't know the person that they're posting about.
"If it's a photo of someone, it's a person, it's a human. It is someone who has feelings, who knows what it's like to be bullied because they're probably experienced this before.
"I'm human and there are times when I get upset and hurt."
Another woman who is featured in the cruel TikTok hoax is Melissa Blake. After seeing her image used on the viral challenge she took to her blog to vent her anger.
She wrote: "I’d thought I’d seen it all. But a few weeks ago, I discovered it was happening again on TikTok through something called the New Teacher Challenge.
“It’s the latest viral trend in which parents show their children photos of disabled people, who they say is their child’s new teacher. The kids' reactions - typically frightened and embarrassed - is filmed, of course. And it’s all done for a laugh.
“I’m not laughing, though, because none of this is funny. I’m utterly disgusted.”
