According to the NY Daily News
Madelyn Sheaffer had just lost 100 pounds and felt confident enough in her skin to wear a bikini to the Adventure Oasis Water Park. After employees told her to cover up or leave, the Independence woman decided to speak out.
“I just felt like I was singled out,” Sheaffer told KSHB. “I felt like it was both age and body discrimination.”
Unfazed, Sheaffer asked to speak to a higher-up. The manager sang the same tune and showed her the exit in case she didn’t want to comply with the demand.
But Sheaffer says that the younger girls at the pool wore similar swimsuits and were not being told to cover up.
“There are 16- or 18-year-old girls wearing just the same amount and no one’s criticizing them or making them feel ashamed or feel uncomfortable in their bodies,” Sheaffer said.
A representative from the City of Independence told KSHB that managers have the last word when it comes to deciding whether or not a customer is wearing appropriate clothing.
But Sheaffer didn’t understand what she’d done wrong.
“It’s summer time. It’s a swimming pool,” she said. “I’m wearing a swimming suit.”
