The mother of the autistic child who was denied entrance into Hersheypark on Friday for not wearing a mask due to a medical condition said she just wants to be able to take her son back to the park.
“We’re not looking for anything but entrance back to the park,” Pamela Heinbaugh, mother of the 9-year-old, said in a phone interview with PennLive. “I think people just assumed everyone that puts something up on the internet is looking for something else. We aren’t. We just want our child back in there.”
She said the family had just made a trip to Hersheypark last Thursday with no problems and was surprised by the response from management at the amusement park on this past Friday, July 11.
“They just kept calling more managers and more managers and they all kept saying something completely different,” she said. “Two of the guards weren’t even wearing face masks correctly. They were just hanging on their chins. It was just very frustrating.”
Heinbaugh posted a video of her experience and her son’s emotional reaction to Facebook yesterday, saying her son cannot wear a mask because he has asthma and autism. “He can’t wear anything on his head. He can’t wear a hat. He doesn’t even like to wear shoes,” she said in the video.
The intention behind posting the video was not to garner free things or start legal action, she said, but instead to draw attention to families like hers and be able to take her son back to the park.
“He spent all last night with his Hersheypark lanyard on, wanting to go back, and it’s very difficult to explain to him we can’t,” Heinbaugh said.
Hershey Park released a statement yesterday, saying, “Our policy is meant to protect the health and safety of all of our guests and team members at Hersheypark. It is being followed by many of our peers in the amusement park industry and is consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which allows businesses to impose legitimate safety requirements necessary for safe operations when a direct threat, like COVID-19, has been established.”
Over 400 people contacted Heinbaugh through Facebook Messenger on Friday and around 20 lawyers reached out to her, saying they wanted to take her case. She said she’s unsure that she will pursue legal action.
“I don’t want anything from them, and I think we’ve made that clear. I just want my son to be able to go to the park, the same as we did last week,” Heinbaugh said.
Since her son cannot wear a mask, Heinbaugh said her family spends their time in the water park area where masks are not required, and that they maintain social distancing guidelines. She added that they don’t even go to the rides to be safe, and said she got clearance from her son’s doctors before taking him to make sure he was safe.
Heinbaugh said there has been a substantial outpouring of community support from her son’s teachers and from families across the country standing in solidarity with her family.
Hersheypark requires all park-goers over the age of 2 to wear a face covering and maintain social distancing guidelines in accordance with orders from Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf and the state’s Health Department Secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine.
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Mom of autistic boy wants Hersheypark to allow mask policy exemptions: ‘We just want our child back in there' - PennLive
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