- A 17-year-old Sesame Place employee was attacked Sunday and badly injured by a visitor he had asked to wear a mask, the amusement park and police said.
- Sesame Place, a “Sesame Street” theme park in Pennsylvania, requires all visitors over the age of 2 to wear masks.
- Employers at restaurants and shops and in other reopening sectors have faced harassment and violence with anti-mask customers in recent months.
- Visit the Business Insider website for more stories.
A 17-year-old employee of the theme park was attacked on Sunday by an anti-mask visitor, police and the park said, in the latest instance of violence against workers tasked with enforcing mask policy.
Police told CBS Philly that after the worker at Sesame Place, a “Sesame Street” theme park in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, told the man and a woman he was with that the park’s policy required them to wear masks, the man the worker attacks. The worker apparently underwent jaw surgery.
Sesame Place confirmed the incident, Business Insider said in a statement saying the visitor had “attacked one of our team members” and was seriously injured. “
“We have been in close communication with the family of our injured team member, and we hope for a speedy and speedy recovery,” said Sesame Place. “The health and safety of our guests and team members is our top priority, and violence of any kind is unacceptable and intolerable in our park.”
The Sesame Place website says it requires all visitors over the age of 2 to wear masks. “Guests are not required to wear them when eating and drinking, or in designated recreation areas of the park,” it stated. “Face coverings are not allowed in the water (e.g. the slides and all other water attractions in the park).”
Starbucks was one of the first national chains to require customers to wear masks.
Starbucks
Employers at shops and restaurants and in other sectors focused on enforcing mask policies created by state and local governments and business leadership. Many large companies, including Walmart, Starbucks, and McDonald’s, have implemented national mask policies in recent weeks.
Viral videos have highlighted clashes between anti-mask customers and workers at stores such as Costco and Target. Several restaurants said they would close their dining halls after workers were harassed and violent by anti-mask dinners. In a recent survey of 4,187 employees conducted by Service Employees International Union, 44% of McDonald’s employees said they had experienced some form of abuse from customers who refused to wear a mask.
Some companies have turned to the police to try to protect workers from anti-mask customers. In late July, Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, DC, announced that store managers should call police on customers who refuse to wear masks.
“If someone is not willing to wear a mask and follow our rules, then that may be where we can introduce legislation,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski told CBS in July, shortly after the fast-food chain launched a policy expired, that all customers are required to wear masks.
In a law introduced last week, Illinois made it a crime to attack a retail worker or physically threaten him with mask mandates.
