BROWNSTOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A mother said her 5-year-old son was denied a haircut at a Great Clips in Brownstown Township after he experienced a meltdown due to his autism.
“He does have a very high pitched cry and when he doesn’t want to do something I do have to take him from a level 10 to a level 5 and then from a 5 to a 3,” Gloria Gonzales said.
The mother of three said instead of being given time and space to calm her son down she was disrespectfully told to leave.
“She didn’t let him sit down. She didn’t give him a chance to calm down. She just blatantly told me that she was not cutting his hair,” Gonzales said.
Local 4 reached out to the franchise manager about the incident. She denied that the refusal had anything to do with the child’s autism but was solely because of his meltdown.
“A lot of times in the past with my other kids, because I do have three boys, I’ve sat in the chair and they’ve sat on my lap even. But this was a blatant, ‘I will not cut his hair.’ No ifs ands or buts. This was a blatant, ‘no,’ Gonzales said.
Gonzales wants sensitivity training for all employees of Great Clips across the nation.
“My son is autistic, but he’s human and people need to realize that he’s human. There’s autistic people everywhere and we have to have that patience and that grace and that training. I don’t want anything from Great Clips but training,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales said her son was able to get his hair cut twice before at that location and the hairstylist usually works around him.
Local 4 reached out to Great Clips corporate office and the franchise owner, Arun Gupta, released the following statement:
“I’m proud to welcome all customers into my salons. The event that recently took place in my Brownstown salon was an unfortunate instance of miscommunication. We’ve reached out to the family and would welcome the opportunity to have them in our salon again in the future.
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