Queens mom outraged after blind child not allowed on amusement park ride

ISLANDIA (WABC) -- A mother from Queens is outraged over what she calls a case of discrimination.

She says a carnival worker denied her 7-year-old daughter the chance to ride on a spinning swing because the girl is blind.

The headquarters for Big Ben's Midway, the company that was running those rides at the 5-day carnival, is located on Long Island.

The owner, Benny Martinez, told Eyewitness News that he was going to meet with the staff to discuss what happened. There is no word yet from him, but mom Lisa Freitag had plenty to say.

She took her daughter Kailee to a festival in Westbury on Saturday, and the second grader went on rides without a problem. Then, she says, things went south at the spinning swing.

The operator said Kailee couldn't go on unless an adult went with her, but that didn't make sense because other kids were on the ride alone.

Lisa kept questioning the employee, who she says finally admitted that Kailee couldn't go on the ride because of her medical condition. Lisa was so upset that she called 911, and she says that's when the worker said Kailee could take one ride.

But first, he took all the other kids off.

"I said what just happened?" Lisa said. "And the woman said he made everybody get off the swing and made her ride by herself. I was so humiliated for my daughter. She heard them getting off the swing. She asked me, 'Mommy, why did the other kids get off the swing?' That night, she said to me, 'Mommy, I'm blind Kailee.' I said, 'No, Kailee, you are not blind Kailee. You are Kailee Rose Freitag, and being blind does not define who you are.'"