An El Paso woman has accused a Southwest Airlines gate agent of mocking her 5-year-old daughter and "name shaming" her on social media.

KABC-TV reports that Traci Redford and her family were preboarding a flight home at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California when Traci says a gate agent began laughing at the little girl's name, and even took a photo of her boarding pass and posted it on social media.

The girl's name? Abcde, pronounced "ab-city".

Traci told KABC she heard the agent mocking her daughter and laughing with other employees, so she asked them to stop. She was later made aware of the social media post and complained to Southwest, executives of which released the following 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."


 

Now, I do not in any form or fashion condone mocking any child, especially a child with a medical condition like Abcde, whose mother says she suffers from epilepsy, hence their preboarding.

The employee had no business whatsoever taking that photo or posting it to social media for the all the world to see.

That said, is it wrong for me to feel like mom could have chosen a more elegant spelling for the name? Apsody, perhaps? Or Ahpsiddy?

Again, it's never cool to pick on a kid, especially about their name (they didn't pick it), but...I don't know. I don't want to dig myself into a hole here.

If anything, I just hope Abcde won't take the wrong message from all of this and will grow up with a good sense of humor and a positive attitude. This just seems like a 'Boy Named Sue' situation to me.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments section.

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