A flight attendant for Southwest Airlines reportedly told a Virginia Beach mother to glue a mask to her 2-year-old daughter’s face after the toddler refused to keep it on during takeoff.
“I can’t believe this happened to us today,” Ali Cleek revealed in an Instagram post about the Aug. 12 incident that left her daughter Drew in tears. “You hear about it but never expect it to happen to you.”
Cleek said she and her family boarded a Southwest Airlines flight from Orlando to Norfolk, Virginia, last Thursday when her daughter suddenly became inconsolable “and would not keep on her mask.”
Cleek said she and her husband struggled to get the child to comply with the federal mask mandate for travelers, and at one point held the girl down as two flight attendants kept an eye on the situation.
“Drew is a thumb sucker and her only way she biologically knows how to soothe herself is by sucking her thumb which is damn near impossible with a mask,” Cleek wrote on Instagram. “Well two flight attendants stood over me watching as we held her down and tried to get her to wear it.”
Moments later, one of the flight attendants sarcastically told Cleek she could either cut a hole in the mask or “glue it to her face” — adding that glue was available on the plane, according to Fox News.
“I just know that, regardless if it was sarcasm or not, I was embarrassed and trying to follow the mandate as much as I could,” Cleek told Fox News. “My daughter is 2. We were doing everything we could to comply.”
Southwest Airlines has since called Cleek and apologized for the incident, saying “they would essentially talk to the flight crew,” Fox News reported.
“Wearing a mask is the federal mandate… I get it. I respect it,” Cleek wrote on Instagram. “But at some point we have to have human decency. Compassion.”
In a statement to Fox News, Southwest Airlines said, “The federal mask mandate for travelers has been in effect since February 2, 2021 and requires all passengers over the age of two to wear a mask at all times throughout the travel journey. We appreciate the ongoing cooperation among our customers as we work, collectively, to follow the federal mandate and support the comfort and wellbeing of all who travel with us during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”
One year ago, a Brooklyn mother and her six children were kicked off a JetBlue flight after the woman’s 2-year-old daughter refused to wear a face mask, leaving the family stranded in Orlando, according to reports.
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