A deaf woman says she was yelled at, mocked and then denied service at the drive-thru of a California Jack in the Box because she drove straight to the service window without placing her order at the speaker. The incident was caught on video.
In the video, ReVae Arnaud-Jensen tries to explain to the drive-thru employee that she cannot place an order at the speaker because she is deaf. Arnaud-Jensen, who has been deaf since birth, can speak and read lips in addition to communicating through sign language, according to NBC News.
“I can’t hear,” Arnaud-Jensen says in the video pointing to her ear. “You’re discriminating” against me. “Whatever. Whatever,” the Jack in the Box employee responds, telling her to move and that he didn’t care.
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As a result of the exchange, the employee lost his job and Jack in the Box issued the following statement: “We do not tolerate the mistreatment of any customers and expect employees to follow all training procedures, be respectful, courteous and accommodating to all guests,. After a thorough investigation of the incident and direct contact with the local franchise owner, we understand the employee in the video has been terminated.”
The rest of the video shows an emotional Arnaud-Jensen try to place her order again as she tells the employee she will not move until she gets her food. The video ends with the worker appearing to mock her sign language, laughing and closing the drive-thru window on her.
The incident was filmed by the woman’s son, Malachi Jensen, who said he wanted to show people a common problem that the deaf community faces. He told NBC News that the employee’s behavior toward his mother left him “shocked.”
He said they sat at the drive-thru for two hours until Arnaud-Jensen was finally given her food.
“It was my first time seeing an employee acting like that, and honestly I was very shocked. I felt pretty mad too because deaf people very often get treated differently,” he said.
