A Southwest Airlines gate agent has been taking a lot of heat recently after one mom says that the employee made fun of her 5-year-old daughter’s name when they were getting ready to board their flight. The employee even went as far as to take a photo of the young girl’s boarding pass to post on social media.
The name in question? ‘ABCDE’, pronounced “Ab-city”.
“The gate agent started laughing, pointing at me and my daughter, talking to other employees. So I turned around and said, ‘Hey if I can hear you, my daughter can hear you, so I’d appreciate if you’d just stop,'” mother Traci Redford told ABC7 News.
Redford and her daughter were in route to El Paso, TX at the time, departing from John Wayne Airport in Orange County.
As Abcde has epilepsy, her mother and her normally pre-board flights.
“While I was sitting there, she took a picture of my boarding pass and chose to post it on social media, mocking my daughter. It was actually brought to my attention by somebody who had seen it on Facebook and reported it to Southwest Airlines. And after two weeks of doing a formal complaint, Southwest hadn’t done anything,” said Redford.
One of the reasons Redford was so upset about the Facebook post is that it revealed personal information that she feared could be used by malicious parties for identity theft.
While the employee’s actions can’t be undone, Redford now intends to use the ordeal as a learning experience for her daughter as it likely won’t be the last time in her life she will have to confront mean people.
“She said ‘Mom, why is she laughing at my name?’ And I said not everyone is nice and not everyone is going to be nice and it’s unfortunate.'”
The gate agent responsible for the name shaming was not available to comment, but Southwest Airlines did eventually release the following statement in regards to the incident:
“We extend our sincere apology to the family. We take great pride in extending our Southwest Hospitality to all of our Customers, which includes living by the Golden Rule and treating every individual with respect, in person or online. The post is not indicative of the care, respect, and civility we expect from all of our Employees. We have followed up with the Employee involved, and while we do not disclose personnel actions publicly, we are using this as an opportunity to reinforce our policies and emphasize our expectations for all Employees.”
Redford was eight when she first came up with the name Abcde.
Her whole life, she always knew that would be the name she would give to her future daughter.
Although, it actually is not as unusual as one might expect. There are currently 330 girls in the US named Abcde.
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