Claire’s Employee Refuses to Pierce Panicked Child’s Ear
I don't remember getting my ears pierced. I was probably less than 3 months old when I was taken into a store similar to Claire's. Since then I have had to have my ears pierced again because guess what? My ears grew and those piercings ended up looking all kinds of sideways. I don't believe that my parents would have gone through with piercing my ears if I was sobbing and begging my parents to let me go home because the piercing gun scared me. I have had my ears pierced as an adult twice and it still makes me nervous.
Imagine being an employee of Claire's and finding out that the 7-year-old who is supposed to be getting their ears pierced is having a meltdown. Would you pierce that child's ears at their parent's request? How does that work? Do you savagely hold down a child in the middle of a store? This is the predicament Raylene Marks found herself in. Marks wrote on her Facebook after she quit her job at Claire's after being told that she would face disciplinary action if she didn't pierce the child's ears. After Marks wrote about the experience on Facebook her post was shared over 2,000 times. Today spoke with Marks "Usually it might take 15 minutes for a nervous child to pick out some earrings and get their ears pierced. This was 30 minutes of sobbing refusals. She made some very clear statements, such as: 'I don’t like them touching me. I don’t want the gun on my ear.'" Do you think that a retailer like Claire's should be able to discipline their employees for refusing to pierce a panicked child's ears? Parents, I am curious to hear what you have to say about this.