Southwest Airlines Employee 'Mocked' 5-Year-Old Epileptic Girl For Unique Name, Mother Says

The mother of a five-year-old girl said a gate agent working for Southwest Airlines mocked her daughter because she had an unusual name.

The incident took place when Traci Redford was boarding a flight from John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, to El Paso, Texas, a few weeks ago. Redford’s daughter, who suffers from epilepsy, pronounces her name as “ab-city” but it is spelled “Abcde.”

Choosing not to find out how her name is pronounced, and focusing on the spelling instead, an airport gate staff started making fun of Traci’s daughter after checking her boarding pass, the mother claimed.

“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,'" Redford said.

However, the gate agent did not just stop at that. Redford said the agent posted a picture of Abcde’s boarding pass on Facebook so that others on social media could also weigh in.

"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.

The Southwest Airlines issued the following statement to ABC7 regarding 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 said instead of letting the incident become a negative memory for her daughter, she used the opportunity to teach her a lesson about life.

"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,'" Redford said.

According to Huffington Post Life, which analyzed the list of most popular baby names of 2017, released by U.S. Social Security Administration, the name “Abcde” was bestowed on just six girls that year.

A seven-year-old autistic girl named “Abcde” made headlines in 2014 when she was turned away by a mall Santa Claus because he was afraid of her service dog.