Shakayla Dixon, her son Corderrion Valentine and three of his friends were sacked from Clinton Burger King after their hiring went viral.
Dixon, who was the manager of the Clinton location, was thrilled to have hired the four teens as it was a great idea to give them additional cash before classes started in the fall. She went on to share a picture of themselves working on Facebook.
She told WBLT, “After the post, probably like later that evening, the post started doing numbers. It got to like 1K at that point.”
Her photo was also shared on Instagram by well-known actor Nick Cannon, who got more than 90,000 likes and hundreds of shares. Dixon described how things were going wonderfully until she received a phone call.
She said, “I got a call from my area manager and my district leader. She said we don’t want to turn something good into something bad, but we have some concerns. The concerns she had were the fact that Corderrion is my son and how much money they were getting paid.”
She continued, “She told me that a minor is supposed to get paid differently than what an adult gets paid. It was never brought to my attention beforehand. My things were when it came down to policy. I feel like policy wasn’t in play in the beginning.”
Dixon and the boys believed that they were fired for nepotism. The way things turned out saddened her 15-year-old son Valentine. Given the level of violence surrounding them in the metro, their employment provided an environment of safety.
He told the network, “I felt like it was a good thing because we could have really been out doing violence or shooting or killing, but we went out and worked.”
“I felt like it was a fun experience to get you ready for the real world,” he added.
He shared that he’s always wanted to be a positive role model and show his generation that it’s alright to work hard and be a productive citizen. “I hope that it portrayed a lot of people to do things good and stop the violence,” he said.
In the meantime, Dixon, his mother, has set up a GoFundMe page to assist her son’s and his friends’ future educational costs.
