Women Leaves Children in Hotel Pool Unattended. Refuses to Gives Room Number.

[Pink Partridge]

She says she was targeted because she was black. I say, if you leave your children in a pool and walk to your car, I am not believing anything you say. Color had nothing to do with this.

In the end, she was just a negligent parent that was indeed a guest in the hotel.

Boy, CNN can really write a headline, can't they?

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/01/us/hampton-inn-black-family-pool-trnd/index.html

 

[GoingSince1990]

I certainly don’t have any problem with hotel staff asking for my room key or room number to check that I’m allowed to be using the pool. Provided of course that they apply this policy equally to white and black familes.

 

[MillauFr]

Boy, CNN can really write a headline, can't they?

Couldn't you be accused of the same thing with your thread title?

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Maybe the employee should have asked the kids where their parent was if she was concerned instead of immediately calling the police. Mom could have been using rest room and told the kids to sit by the pool but kids don’t always listen. Would she have called the police first if the children were white?

 

[Pink Partridge]

Couldn't you be accused on the same thing with your thread title?

Love it!

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

I certainly don’t have any problem with hotel staff asking for my room key or room number to check that I’m allowed to be using the pool. Provided of course that they apply this policy equally to white and black familes.

The article that I saw said there were only a couple of other families at the pool when this happened. All that the employee had to do was ask the other 2 families for the same info and this whole mess could have been avoided.

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

Maybe the employee should have asked the kids where their parent was if she was concerned instead of immediately calling the police. Mom could have been using rest room and told the kids to sit by the pool but kids don’t always listen. Would she have called the police first if the children were white?

In the other article, it said that the employee did ask her for her info first and she refused to give it. That's when the police were called.

 

[Pink Partridge]

Maybe the employee should have asked the kids where their parent was if she was concerned instead of immediately calling the police. Mom could have been using rest room and told the kids to sit by the pool but kids don’t always listen. Would she have called the police first if the children were white?

Please take your children to the restroom when they are at a pool. A 7 year old should not be left alone at a pool no matter what. A drowning can happen so fast.

I think the police were called because the negligent mother would not give her room number and she thought she was trespassing. Although, I do think trespassing is going to be ok soon. Just look the other way and never ask questions.

 

[china mom]

If I am at a hotel pool and questioned about whether or not I am a guest, I will provide my name and room number so that I can go on with my day. If I refuse, I would expect to be questioned further.

 

[mousefan73]

I could see hotel staff questioning what is going on just if the only thing the hotel employee saw was kids alone in a pool playing and mom only in the outside parking lot hanging out of her in the car. It does kind a look like the mother dropped her kids off at the pool and was just waiting in her car. I’m assuming from the picture that this is more like a motel. Pool accessible from the outside. Especially if the mom was able to keep an eye on her kids.


So I am in the opinion the hotel staff probably had a right to ask what was going on if that is what they saw. Again I’m assuming that this is probably what they saw.But they handled the whole situation totally wrong. No wonder people don’t like cops if they get called for every little thing. This is something the hotel or hotel security should’ve handled on their own. Just kindly ask ma’am can you please show me your room card and maybe verify that and, end of story. Maybe explain we just seen you walking between your car in the pool not in and out of the hotel Etc.

 

[Pink Partridge]

The article that I saw said there were only a couple of other families at the pool when this happened. All that the employee had to do was ask the other 2 families for the same info and this whole mess could have been avoided.

This whole mess could have been avoided if the mother didn't go to her vehicle.


Ask the other families to implicate a black woman that left her children unattended in a pool? That's a doxing nightmare. No thank you. I wouldn't answer. I would stare at those kids and make sure they didn't drown. But even then, you could really be accused of something.

Also, I don't see anyone else in the pool. I think the mother said "Why did you ask me? You didn't ask the other people.". Well, the other people didn't leave their kids and go to the parking lot.

 

[china mom]

I think the police were called because the negligent mother would not give her room number and she thought she was trespassing. Although, I do think trespassing is going to be ok soon. Just look the other way and never ask questions.

I think the reason that the employee was suspicious that the woman was a trespasser was because she was sitting in her car in the parking lot while the children swam. She claims she was charging her phone/talking on it. Maybe the car had a better view of the pool than her room does but I am sure that is what aroused the employee's suspicion.

A room key is far from proof. If I was local and wanted to use a free pool, what would stop me from obtaining a key from any number of places and showing that as my proof that I was a guest all summer long?

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I think the employee overreacted.

 

[china mom]

duplicate post

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

This whole mess could have been avoided if the mother didn't go to her vehicle.


Ask the other families to implicate a black woman that left her children unattended in a pool? That's a doxing nightmare. No thank you. I wouldn't answer. I would stare at those kids and make sure they didn't drown. But even then, you could really be accused of something.

Also, I don't see anyone else in the pool. I think the mother said "Why did you ask me? You didn't ask the other people.". Well, the other people didn't leave their kids and go to the parking lot.

Absolutely, most hotel pools have a list of rules posted somewhere, one of them is usually no unattended children under a certain age and another one is hotel guests only.

Here is the article stating that there were a couple of other people there:

https://people.com/human-interest/hampton-inn-staffer-fired-calling-cops-black-guest-pool/
If the employee had simply done a "blanket" key check, then afterwards told the mother she had to be in the physical pool area with her kids there would have been nothing to cry discrimination about.

I'm not saying the employee shouldn't have done anything, just that there was a better way to have done it.

 

[china mom]

Aren't we wrong to assume racist intent? How do we know the motivations of the employee? Maybe she was in the process of checking all of the guest but happened to start with the one she did.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard "you just pulled me over because I'm black" when there was no way I could have known the violator's race before approaching the vehicle.

Edited to add - by "we" I mean the reporter, the woman, or anyone else who jumps to the conclusion.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I saw that video online, but did not know the mom was sitting in the car while her kids were in the pool. I don't think the employee was wrong to question her since the kids were left unattended. Most hotel pools have a list of rules, including not leaving anyone under a certain age alone. Being able to see them from her car wasn't good enough. If she was on the phone and distracted, lots of things could have gone wrong and the hotel could be liable.

I do think calling the police was overkill! Most hotels ask you to register your license plate number for parking enforcement. I assume the hotel had the mom's plate number on file. So all the employee had to do was look up the number to see if the car was registered at the hotel. This is what they would do if they suspected a car in their lot didn't belong to a registered guest. Also, the employee should not have said the issue was about whether or not she was a registered guest. The real issue was the unattended kids.

 

[DLgal]

This is just bad employee training. The employee should have simply reminded the woman of the policy regarding supervising children within the pool area, and told her that she needed to remain with her children at all times or they needed to leave the pool area with her while she returned to her car. I would have offered to let help her find a nearby outlet so she could charge her phone.

The hotel manager should hire someone to walk around every hour asking all guests poolside to show room keys. This policy should be clearly communicated with signs.

 

[disykat]

I don't get how this can automatically be accepted as discrimination and I don't think the employee should have been fired unless that was evidence of other discriminatory acts. She said she asked for the key because the kids were alone and mom was sitting in a car. If other people were doing the same thing and weren't questioned THEN there would be a problem. While there are certainly often negative associations with the phrase "people like you" she could have very well meant "people who sit in their cars while their children swim."

This reminds me of an instance when I was growing up and we were in San Francisco. We were walking down the street and a man jumped in front of my dad and said "You're staring at me because I'm black!" My dad was surprised and blurted out "I'm staring at you because you're wearing a crazy hat." Fortunately the man laughed and moved on. We were all glad it hadn't turned into a major incident! (I think I was about 9 at the time and I can't remember what the man looked like, but I still remember his hat and his behavior.) Sometimes the behavior is what draws the notice, not skin color. That doesn't mean racism doesn't exist, it just isn't ALWAYS the reason someone is called out or noticed for behavior.

 

[DLgal]

I don't get how this can automatically be accepted as discrimination and I don't think the employee should have been fired unless that was evidence of other discriminatory acts. She said she asked for the key because the kids were alone and mom was sitting in a car. If other people were doing the same thing and weren't questioned THEN there would be a problem. While there are certainly often negative associations with the phrase "people like you" she could have very well meant "people who sit in their cars while their children swim."

This reminds me of an instance when I was growing up and we were in San Francisco. We were walking down the street and a man jumped in front of my dad and said "You're staring at me because I'm black!" My dad was surprised and blurted out "I'm staring at you because you're wearing a crazy hat." Fortunately the man laughed and moved on. We were all glad it hadn't turned into a major incident!

But, like, why go immediately to asking someone to prove that they have a right to be somewhere instead of simply asking "are those your children in the pool over there by themselves?" This would have started the conversation on the right foot, addressing the actual safety issue at hand. Jumping straight to "show me your room key" is accusatory in a completely different way.