A day out for early Christmas shopping turned into heartache after a mother and her disabled son after he was refused entry into a local book store.
Amy Wright and her 27-year-old son Nic went shopping at Northumberland Mall on Thursday, November 5, 2020 to go to Coles bookstore.
But even with Nic wearing a large shield instead of a mask her son was refused entry to the store.
“Our only purpose was to go to Coles bookstore and she refused entry to him saying he had to have a facemask and not the shield.”
Even with Wright stating her son has a medical exemption why he can’t wear a mask for a number of reasons her son was still refused entry.
“She offered that I could purchase a mask for him. I told her if he could wear a mask we wouldn’t be having this problem.”
The employee stated it was the policy of the company that people entering the store must wear a mask.
Wright said her only option was to leave Nic in the hallway, run in, grab the item, pay for it and leave, but it’s left both her and her son extremely hurt over what transpired.
“Nic was visibly upset he couldn’t go in. We were doing our Christmas shopping before everybody else was out and thought we’d try and support local.”
Nic was always looking forward to spending his money at the book store.
Nic has Noonan Syndrome and has had three open-heart surgeries, three pacemakers and numerous other afflictions.
Wright said because of what her son suffers from she is extremely safety conscious including having a larger than normal face shield, “that reaches down to his pacemaker.”
“He doesn’t have a whole lot going on in his world” and a bit of early Christmas shopping was something they both were looking forward too.
Wright said her son has been “medically fragile” his entire life and there is no one more safety conscience to protect her son from others then herself.
The mother and son both used the hand sanitiser immediately upon entering Northumberland Mall and took every precaution and then some.
“My own friends won’t come over even if they think they have a cold and it’s always been like that because of Nic’s immune system so we are very safety conscience not just during a pandemic.”
“He’s far more protected than I am.”
Wright said the staff at Coles were polite, but firm and indicated numerous times it was the policy of the company.
Today’s Northumberland reached out to Coles at Northumberland Mall for a comment. They sent the request to the regional operations manager who never called back.
“I was pretty ticked off. I didn’t want to put a damper on the day. We were shopping and this is the one thing he wanted to do. It’s the first time we’ve been to the mall since the pandemic and he always gets little stuff from there.”
This was the first time they’ve ever had a problem with a store since the pandemic as people understand with his disability.
A small toy store in downtown Cobourg goes above and beyond and even closes the store for a few minutes so the mother and son can shop.
A week after being refused entry, Wright said her son is still upset about what transpired.
Asking Nic how he felt over the entire situation he was a bit more direct and to the point, “this is total bs.”
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
