A Texas mother is speaking out on Friday night after she says she was harassed at a hotel pool in Southern California.
She believes it was because of the color of her skin.
Cellphone video shows a confrontation captured between an irate mother and an unidentified man at Pasadena’s Westin Hotel. The man reportedly claimed he was a health inspector.
That mom, who only wanted to use her last name Wheeler, said she and her family, including her 5-year-old daughter, were visiting from Texas for summer vacation.
Wheeler said the man approached her and her child as they were swimming in the hotel pool asking if they had showered before entering the water.
That person allegedly continued to harass the family telling them, according to Wheeler, that people carry diseases that could contaminate the water and that he didn’t want to have to shut down the pool area.
“I was shocked,” Mrs. Wheeler said. “I couldn’t believe. Nobody had ever asked me anything like that.”
Wheeler alleges a verbal assault continued, some of which was directed to her little girl who relatives quickly escorted from the location.
The cellphone recording shows the aftermath of that altercation that moved inside the hotel when Wheeler said the general manager tried intervening.
Wheeler said instead of pressing the person on his comments and investigating the matter, the general manager threatened to call the police on Wheeler and her family who were enraged by the experience.
“I’m a homeowner. I’m a taxpayer and a law-abiding citizen,” Wheeler said. “I’m not trashy, and I’m not dirty. Now, I have to teach my daughter that no matter (how) educated we are and how successful we are in life, we still have people who treat us like this because of the color of our skin.”
The hotel released a statement saying they are investigating the incident.
The Pasadena Health Department says the man in the video is not an employee.