What is it with families and flying these days?
And by flying I mean getting booted from airplanes.
Barely a day goes by anymore without some innocent clan getting the heave-ho from a commercial flight due to a perceived threat made by a child.
However, the latest incident doesn’t involve a screaming baby, a chatty toddler or a hungry infant; rather, a California family claims they were kicked off an American Airlines flight simply because their 16-year-old son has Down syndrome.
Joan and Robert Vanderhorst, of Bakersfield, California, are irate by what they are calling “pure discrimination.”
“It’s defamation,” Robert Vanderhorst told the New York Daily News. “It was horrible, humiliating. We were treated like criminals.”
According to news reports, the family was waiting to board a flight from New Jersey to their home in California on Sunday when American Airlines officials notified them that their special needs son posed a “flight risk.”
The Vanderhorst’s son Bede is a freshman in high school and has reportedly flown more than 30 times in his life. His parents say he has never caused any trouble and Sunday was no different.
Unfortunately, an American Airlines pilot didn’t feel the same way.
The Daily News reports that just as the family was about to slide into their first class seats, an American Airlines official pulled them aside and said the pilot had observed Bede and didn’t feel safe allowing him on the plane.
Joan Vanderhorst whipped out her video camera and shot the entire incident, including her attorney husband calmly telling the airline official that Bede was not misbehaving.
This led to the American Airlines employee calling Port Authority police to escort the family away from the gate.
Despite claims of blatant discrimination, American Airlines says it stands by its pilot’s decision to give the family the boot because of alleged “agitated behavior” by Bede in the gate area.
“Asking the family to take the next flight was a decision that was made with careful consideration and that was done based on the behavior of the teen,” the airline said. “Our customer service team worked with the Vanderhorst family and the EWR [Newark airport] team, as well as the crew, tried to get Bede comfortable. Unfortunately, the crew determined he was still agitated.”
The Vanderhorsts tell the paper that they plan to sue the airline for violating Bede’s civil rights and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Do these types of stories make you think twice about flying with your kids?
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