A Vans shoe store employee in Kansas has been fired after telling a 14-year-old boy “fuck you” for refusing to take off the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) hat he was wearing in the store.
The teen and his mother were shopping at the Overland Park, Kansas, store when the unidentified employee allegedly cursed at the teen for refusing to take off his MAGA hat.
The teen’s mother then confronted the employee for provoking her.
“He did nothing to you. And what did you say to my son, to my 14-year-old son?” the mother asked the employee, according to a video of the incident.
“I’m sure he’s heard it before,” the employee then told the woman,
“What did you say again?” the mother asks again, before getting the employee to admit he told her son “fuck you.”
The mother, angry at the employee’s attitude, went to the other side of the store to alert a manager.
Eventually, the woman made her way to the checkout counter and told another Vans employee at the counter about what happened.
“My son walked into this store. That gentleman [appearing to point at the employee] cursed and told him, ‘Take off your hat,'” the woman told the Vans employee at the cash register. “He said nothing to him, 14-year-old child, then he said, ‘F you’ to my son. My son said nothing to him, did nothing.”
The video of the encounter went viral, prompting the company to terminate the employee shown in the video.
A spokesperson for Vans told Fox News that the employee in question “is no longer with the company.”
“The actions and comments from one employee in our Oak Park location are in contrast with our company’s values and belief in personal expression,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
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