Awaiting further consideration

School exclusion is a relatively rare occurrence, but there is a disproportionate over-representation of students with special educational needs (SEN) being excluded from mainstream classrooms, both formally and through hidden practices. Venturing from the classroom into the world of educational research for my doctoral study, I came across further potentially exclusionary practices as questions were raised about the capacity of students labelled as SEN to provide voluntary informed consent. In my contribution to this special issue, I use poetry to reflect on ethical issues in my study and the need to challenge perceptions of the vulnerable in order to fight for their rights to be heard and participate equitably in all aspects of society.