The PR geniuses at Abercrombie & Fitch are in the news again for refusing to let a 14-year old autistic shopper have help trying on clothes. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights has fined the company $115,264 for discriminating against a person with a disability.

Hm. This sure sounds familiar.

The injured parties include Molly Maxon, who has autism, and her older sister. When the two tried to enter a fitting room together so that the sister could help Molly try on clothes, an A&F employee refused to let them, citing a store policy to prevent shoplifting.

The confrontation humiliated the girl, who testified that the incident made her feel like a “misfit.”

“She was singled out and required to hear her sister and mother repeatedly ask for accommodations based on her disability, in front of a long line of customers, at a store that markets itself to young people as a purveyor of a particularly desirable ‘look,'” administrative law judge Kathleen D. Sheehy declared in her ruling.

Abercrombie & Fitch fined in MOA discrimination case [Star Tribune] (Thanks to Andy Jones and many others who sent this in)

(Photo: permanently scatterbrained)

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