What was a sweet storyline for the summer on social media has turned sour.
A group of Black teenagers who went viral for posting they landed summer jobs at Burger King have now been fired by the fast food restaurant in Clinton, Mississippi. The mother of one of the former employees was also fired from her position.
Why ere they all fired?
Shakayla Dixon, the mother of 15-year-old Corderrion Valentine, told WLBT she believes it was nepotism. Dixon was the manager of the store. After hiring her son and his friends, she proudly took photos of them working and posted them on Facebook. The photos went viral and even Nick Cannon re-posted it.
“Now this is the wave!” Cannon captioned the post. “Staying out of trouble, and getting the bag the right way! This is how it’s done, Kings!”
Dixon said it was going well until she received a phone call from the restaurant chain’s district leader. The company executive claims Dixon’s son, as a minor, was getting paid what adults were supposed to get paid.
“It was never brought to my attention beforehand,” Dixon told WLBT. “… I feel like the policy wasn’t in play in the beginning.”
Valentine said he felt having the summer job and bringing his friends with him was a great thing because it kept them all out of trouble.
“I hope that it portrayed to many people to do things good and stop the violence,” Valentine told WLBT.
Burger King could not be reached for comment by the time of the story’s publication. Dixon created a GoFundMe to help with back-to-school expenses for her and her son’s friends.
