- Over the weekend, Iliana, 10, who has Stage 4 cancer, went to a salon.
- In a since-deleted post, her family says salon employees made fun of her appearance.
- The salon has since apologized.
- In a Facebook post, the salon said the employee who made the comments no longer works there.
A family from Virginia says that a 10-year-old girl was mocked by salon employees for her appearance, as ABC 7 first reported.
On Friday night, Iliana, 10, who is in remission after having Stage 4 cancer, went to a salon with her mom "for a special evening."
While she was there, she was apparently mocked by nail technicians, who told her she "looked like a boy the entire time," according to a since-deleted Facebook post shared by her aunt, Shelle Jones.
Jones, who did not respond to INSIDER's request for comment, wrote that her sister, Iliana's mom, addressed the situation with the salon's manager, but "the response was underwhelming."
A screenshot of the post was shared on Imperial Salon & Day Spa's Facebook page by Crystal Trifiletti.
"Everyone who visits your salon should know how you treat young children recovering from CANCER," Trifiletti wrote. "Shame on you guys and I will never be back. You’ve lost quite a few customers."
The post seemed to resonate.
In the comments, people said that they were disappointed to hear about Illiana's experience.
"Please stop spending your money with people who don’t respect you!" one person wrote. "I just heard about this," someone else said. "It breaks my heart that people could be so cruel."" Even if she hadn't just beaten cancer, why would mock any child's hair? How badly do you feel about yourself that making fun of a child makes you feel bigger? That's pretty horrible in itself, let alone it's a little girl who has been through hell and back," a third Facebook user remarked.
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Following the online backlash, Imperial Salon & Day Spa issued an apology on Facebook.
"We deeply apologize that this has happened. We would love to meet with you and your daughter to formally apologize,"the post said. "Your daughter and any other cancer survivor and fighter have our complete support. This matter breaks our hearts as a business and as parents ourselves."
They also offered free services as a sort of consolation.
"We know that offering any package would never be enough to make up for this sad situation but, would love to offer a package for your little girl and family," they wrote. "We as owners would love to show you that this one incident is not what our spa or company is about. Please allow us to have an opportunity to show you that our company is better than this."
Speaking with INSIDER, the new manager of the salon, who was hired on Sunday, said that the nail technician who made the comments has been fired. She said two additional employees will face disciplinary action.
In the comment of the post, the owners, who said they were out of town at the time of the incident, said the employee who made the comments no longer works at the spa.
"We as a business do not support what has been said by a former employee," the comment said. "At this time all we can do is apologize for this sad matter and try to learn and teach our employees that this and any other comments about clients are not okay."
The manager, who said she is an ovarian cancer survivor, told INSIDER that had she been an employee of the salon at the time of the incident things would have been different.
"I wasn't here. I can't fix it. All I can say is I'm sorry," she said. "All I can say is from here on out, this will never home again. No bullying will ever happen here while I'm here."
Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.
UPDATE: December 4, 2018: This post was updated to include a statement from the salon's manager.
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