Former employee calls out Claire’s for ear-piercing policy

EDMONTON – An Edmonton woman says she recently quit her job at a pre-teen jewelry and accessories chain because she says workers are required to pierce kids’ ears at their parents’ request — even if the children are begging for it not to happen.

Raylene Marks posted “an open letter to Claire’s Corporate” on Facebook, saying she reached a “breaking point” when a seven-year-old girl came in with her mother to get her ears pierced.

“The girl pleaded and sobbed for thirty minutes not to be pierced. Despite Mom saying, “Honey, we can go home whenever you want,” she was not letting her daughter go home. She was putting a great deal of pressure on her daughter to go through with the piercing. This child was articulate, smart, and well aware of herself and her body. She expressed that she didn’t want us touching her, that we were standing too close, that she was feeling uncomfortable. She made it clear she no longer wanted to get her ears pierced. She begged, over and over again, for Mom to please, just take her home. That child’s message was loud and clear to me: Do not touch my body, do not pierce my ears, I do not want to be here.”

Marks says she didn’t want to be part of the piercing for the girl and in the end, the mother took her daughter home with unpierced ears.

She later told her manager that she would not have been able to pierce the girl’s ears if the mother had insisted on it.

“I was firmly told, ‘You would have had no choice but to do it'”

So I brought up the worst scenario I could think of. I wanted to know how far we were supposed to take this policy of piercing non-consenting children. “So if a mother is physically restraining her daughter, holding her down and saying, ‘DO IT,’ while that little girl cries and asks me not to, do I do the piercing?” My manager did not hesitate to respond, “Yes, you do the piercing.”

I gave my notice that day.

According to Marks, the manager told her that this is store policy.

“Children can be held down and pierced. Children do not have a voice in the piercing process. The associate doing the piercing has no right to refuse to shoot metal through the ears of a child who begs not to be touched.”

Marks says Claire’s policies and procedures manual only mentions one situation in which workers can refuse a piercing.

“It is this: ‘We reserve to the right to refuse an ear piercing if a successful one cannot be done.’ There is no mention of the use of physical restraint by the parent, or the employee’s right to refuse an ear piercing if their concerns are for the emotional welfare of the child.”

Marks says the policy is “deeply flawed” and could contribute to children being traumatized or otherwise subjected to intimidation and abuse.

The company has since responded on Twitter, saying it will be taking corrective action and investigating individual incidents.