A PARTIALLY deaf teenager was left stranded at her school after a bus driver refused to accept her disability pass.

Rebekah Fairhurst, aged 18, of Caldbeck Avenue, Heaton, tried to catch her regular 969 bus from Canon Slade school, in Bradshaw Brow, when the bus driver told her she could not use the pass.

She was so taken aback that she stepped off the bus and was left outside the school as it drove off.

Her furious father, Geoff Fairhurst, has hit out at bus company First after the incident, which happened on Friday afternoon.

He said: "Rebekah has got on the bus every day since she was in year seven. She's now in year 13.

"She was so shocked and embarrassed by what the driver said that she got off the bus.

"As you might imagine, we are very unhappy about this."

He said it was not safe for Rebekah to get a public bus into the town centre, and another bus home, because she cannot hear the traffic.

The youngster was left to phone her Mum, who had to come to collect her from the school.

A spokesman for First said: "The company would like to apologise to Rebekah and the Fairhurst family for any distress and anxiety that has been caused.

"The details that have been reported will now be thoroughly investigated so that the facts from both sides can be clearly established."