Her name isn’t as uncommon as you think
A mum has hit out at an airline after a flight attendant posted a picture of her daughter’s boarding pass on social media, where it was savagely mocked.
Traci Radford and her five-year-old daughter were about to board at the gate at California’s John Wayne Airport in 2018 when she reportedly heard a giggle from a member of the Southwest Airlines staff.
Radford claims a airlines employee made fun of her daughter’s name – Abcde – pronounced ‘ab-cidy’.
Abcde has epilepsy so the family were travelling pre-board in Orange County to their home in El Paso, Texas.
Radford said that the gate agent later posted a photo of Abcde’s boarding pass on her Facebook page, where others joined in mocking the little girl’s name.
She told ABC7: “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.'”
Radford further claimed that while she was standing there, the staff member took a picture of her boarding pass “and chose to post it on social media, mocking my daughter.”
The mum said the post was brought to her attention by someone who had reported it to Southwest Airlines, who “after two weeks of doing a formal complaint, Southwest hadn’t done anything.”
Radford recalled her daughter responding to the incident at the time: “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.'”
At the time, Southwest Airlines said in a statement: “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.” Although Abcde is a fairly uncommon name, it’s not completely unheard of.
In 2014, Vocativ reported that over the previous 30 years, 328 baby girls in the US have been given that name.
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