Traci Redford said she was boarding a Southwest Airlines flight home to El Paso, Texas, with her 5-year-old daughter when she overheard an airline employee mocking the little girl’s name, Abcde (pronounced ab-city). Now the airline has apologized to the mom and daughter in a public statement.
The incident occurred at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Calif., according to news affiliate ABC 7 in Los Angeles. The Redfords were preboarding — as they usually do because Abcde is epileptic — when the Southwest Airlines gate agent started laughing and pointing at the child and making fun of her unique name to fellow airline employees. “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,’” Redford told ABC 7.
