I wonder if any customers wanted Victoria to leave, or if the clerks decided on a whim to ask Victoria to leave.

The story doesn't sound convincing.

The little girl looks cute. Certainly not scary. Anything is possible, but I am waiting to see what the investigation showed, and what other people who were there saw/heard.

Who would be "scared" of a little girl, no matter how scarred she was? Then you have to have two of the most clueless people in the world come together while she was there. The first to demand she be kicked out of the restaurant because she scared them. The second, an employee, foolish and insensitive enough to actually go tell the girl and her family member to leave.

If an employee at KFC did do this, he or she should be fired immediately. No sensitivity training, no excuses, no nothing. If it was the franchise owner, KFC should revoke his/her franchise ownership.

In my opinion, the little girls misfortune is being used for profit. They had a Gofundme page, and were looking for $100,000, it wasn't going well until the alleged KFC incident. Including KFC's donation they have reached their goal, and more. On their Facebook page I also saw people trying to set up a trip to Disney, and donating art. After I read prayers were good, but money is better, that was enough for me.

I am curious as to what KFC's investigation actually shows.

what had happened.

but if not this info does make me question it.

in both cases the girl is a victim.

The allegation was made on facebook. Child's grandmother said this happened. I am not aware at this time of anyone else confirming this happened.

Why aren't they naming the insurance company that is not paying for her care? There are details that are missing from the story, and it just doesn't make sense. Considering an innocent little girl is involved, I think this story will fade away, and we probably won't know if anything happened at KFC.

In that case the child had skin lesions that could have been anything from measles to who knows what--potentially a contagious disease. Customers and management had a legitimate reason for concern. The manager didn't handle the situation well in that case, but it is not similar to this one which dealt strictly with scarring.

Considering a number of cases that caused internet outrage but turned out to be not true, I remain skeptical at this time.

or has possibly already gone out-- as a result of this.

It will not admit any corporate-level blame (be it due to lax hiring practices. or whatever), that's for damn sure.

Poor little girl! My thoughts are with her and her family.



Definitely inconsequential and trivial asides:

I haven't patronized my local KFC since I discovered it doesn't sell coffee. Now that I know an obvious scar behind my left ear could upset some patrons there, causing me to be asked to leave, that's definitely reasons #2 through #10 not to reconsider.


If I had been the manager of that KFC, and learned that the server had asked the complaining patrons to leave instead, I would have immediately given him/her a raise.

Where is the corporate-level blame here that you are insinuating? The blame is lower level management at the store itself. The corporate response has been appropriate and generous.

regardless of level, while they're on the clock. That's why I'm curious to see how KFC responds in the confines of internal memoranda and possible action taken once the investigation is concluded.

I applaud KFC's public response, but would really like to get a glimmer of how they approach this internally. If it ends up with a modification of their hiring practices to specify "no soulless cretins," I'll be satisfied.

Thanks for the link, Lisa. So you're essentially agreeing with the corporate response?

Let's see the e-mails and other internal communications that led to this public statement. I couldn't find a link, and anything you could provide on this would be very helpful.

KFC's PR Department (or whatever they're calling that these days) would seem to agree with me. Any indication that this episode really took place puts them--at the top--in a position of culpability.

I'd especially like to see the communications between Legal and PR addressing why $30,000 (or whatever the amount) was the optimum sum to give to the allegedly offended family, regardless of the results of their then-upcoming internal investigation.

This will probably fall off everyone's radar by the time the independent investigator comes to its conclusions, so we'll probably never know anyway, unless some portion of the media follows up, no?

Why don't you provide a link to any evidence that this episode actually took place?
So far I have seen nothing but the allegation by the grandma.
There were supposedly other people eating at that restaurant.
Did any other witnesses come forward?

If KFC thinks it didn't happen, that's not stopping them from shelling out profits from your(or anyone's, for that matter) last ten-piece-bucket-with-two-sides-and-biscuits to to a third-party investigator.

Re-read the last part of my previous post, too, and at last agree with me that nobody outside of the particular parties involved will ever know how this eventually will have played out. We'll all have moved on, possibly forgetting about assholes in the employ of KFC--for which they are responsible, or possibly not.

But you seem fairly certain that this episode never in fact took place.

Aren't you at all interested in knowing for sure, or are you already convinced this is all about someone out to make a quick buck?

"The story of Victoria Wilcher, who was disfigured by dog attack, being asked to leave a KFC Jackson because her appearance was scaring other customers was a story generated out of whole cloth and resulted in the family receiving more than $135,000 in cash, as well as gifts and free surgeries, sources with deep knowledge of the investigation said exclusively to the Laurel Leader-Call."

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2014/06/23/girl-tossed-from-kfc-hoax/11284405/

If someone were bothered ask them to not look.

I think it's good of KFC to donate $30,000 to little Victoria Witcher's medical bills no matter what. Poor little thing.

It will be interesting to see if the story holds up.

Now, if they would only stop abusing the chickens before they slaughter them.

I know exactly what they are going through. My son who will be 30 in September, went through this exact same experience when he was 7 years old. (We were lucky in that his was at a coffee shop that my family frequented several times a week.)

An elderly couple requested the waitress to ask my family to leave as my son's face caused them to lose their appetite. The waitress said no and the couple then asked to speak to the manager. The manager then told the elderly couple that they could leave as my son had every right to be in the restaurant.

My son was called freak and monster baby for the first year of his life because of his face. After that, the baby was dropped but monster and freak continued. Thankfully this story is opening the eyes of the public about how the facially different are treat EVERY day in our country.

My son looks like Disney's version of the Hunchback.

a misfortune and not a character trait.

In times past circus freak shows were the main places the public had contact with these people and was one of the few employment opportunities available.

Today we have TV documentaries showing the ordinary lives of people with extreme disfigurations and it helps the public to understand and put it in perspective.

Certainly not everyone but I'd hope that most people would be accepting of people with unusual traits today.

I think that's where my kick ass-ness developed - protecting him from assholes, may of whom were adults who should have known better. I loved to shout at them WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? - yes indeed

your child to handle these things with diplomacy. At least that is what I did.

Picture the Disney version of Quasimodo. Did he look different? Did it look like he might be wearing a mask? When his peers (K-6) called him fat cheek he responded, "What good eyes you have" (Kdg-3rd) or "How observant you are! (4th-6th). You will be a good scientist or detective some day."

Those early Halloweens he was told "Great mask" or in the days afterwards, "Halloween is over, take off the mask".

The difference between you and me might be as a mom, I had to prepare him for the world and teach him that he needs to adapt to his environment and not the other way around. If I were to kick ass he might have been perceived as a freak and a mama's boy. I am an only child so I might be wrong on this next comment. As a sibling aren't you allowed to kick ass? Good for you, by the way.

It was fun to give the people staring the same intense stare right back. Sometimes with daggers and sometimes with amusement until they felt shame and averted their eyes.

I was working a departure for a major airline over 20 years ago & went onboard to advise the flight attendants that I was seating a young girl early - (aged 10 or 12) who had been burned over 90% of her body.

One of the FAs said "Ooh - I hope she's not too horrible to look at."

I just looked at the FA, speechless, because my capacity for vitriol had made a former manager cry. I wanted to say "she can't possibly be uglier than you" but didn't. (Sidenote - most FAs are wonderful, caring people & I count many as friends, but the industry, like showbiz, attracts a certain amount of narcissistic airheads.)

I've had training in assisting all kinds of customers with respect, and it's been one of life's best lessons. Help blind people through the public transport system. Help old people up stairways and across intersections. But don't just assume they're incapable. Ask if you can assist.

OK - getting off my soapbox now.

that we met on the several flights we had to take to the children's hospital were awesome. Once we happened to be on the last flight of the day and as he kept requesting peanuts, they gave him an entire unopened bag of the small bags. (Hope that last sentence made sense.)

You truly have a kind heart.

I have all the time in the world for kindly people. I respect boundaries & above all respect your dignity. Irony of ironies, I myself am going blind. Hard to type & feel like a klutz. But there are wonderful souls out there who WILL help you through it.

Feel free to pm me at any time.

You're right that there are wonderful souls who go out of their way to help others. I am saddened to read that you are going blind.

given the other customers' reaction to her - not that they'd be in the right either way, mind you. If a little girl with an eyepatch and a few bite marks is enough to put them off their fried chicken dinner then they must have awfully weak stomachs.

The report of a Jackson KFC accused of asking a 3-year-old girl to leave because of facial scars was a hoax, according to the Laurel Leader-Call.

The story of Victoria Wilcher, who was disfigured by dog attack, being asked to leave a KFC Jackson because her appearance was scaring other customers was a story generated out of whole cloth and resulted in the family receiving more than $135,000 in cash, as well as gifts and free surgeries, sources with deep knowledge of the investigation said exclusively to the Laurel Leader-Call.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/23/mississippi-girl-dog-attack-kfc-hoax/11290485/



....A hoax by the same grandparents whose pitbulls caused her very injury.

Perpetrated by con-artists trying to get free healthcare...

http://leader-call.com/2014/06/23/kentucky-fried-hoax/

We had many folks going off half-cocked with little verified information, spreading it further and vowing to never eat at KFC again.
Will those folks now spread the news that it was a hoax, they were misinformed, and encourage others to eat at KFC?
Thought not.

There was only an allegation originally made on facebook.
Nobody apparently checked to see if KFC outlet was even open.

The only reality about the story seems to be the fact that the adults are using her disfigurement as the linchpin of their scam. If the guardian faces prosecution and jail time, I sure hope the child receives better care from a more appropriate role model.