‘Justice for Jayden’ Started After Firefighter Ridicules 5-Year-Old Girl on Facebook

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Kids bully other kids. It’s awful and it should be stopped, but it’s to be expected. When a child posts mean and hurtful comments about another child on Facebook, it rightfully prompts anger — but rarely surprise. So when we hear that a 5-year-old girl was made fun of on Facebook over her appearance, we’re saddened but not exactly shocked. After all, kids can be cruel.

Except the person who made fun of this particular 5-year-old girl wasn’t a classmate or a peer. He was a grown man. A firefighter, in fact.

The ordeal began when Sherry Myers of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, took her sick son, along with her daughter, to an urgent care facility. Her daughter, 5-year-old Jayden, played on her iPod while they sat in the waiting room. According to Sherry, a man in the waiting room began surreptitiously photographing her daughter. The unnamed man, who’s a firefighter with Lake Meade Fire and Rescue, posted the photographs on his (at the time, publicly viewable) Facebook page, along with some disgusting remarks about Jayden’s appearance.

How disgusting? Here’s a screenshot of one:

“Comments came in, one right after another, referring to her as a transvestite, a future drag. As soon as I got into my car, I wasn’t even in my car five minutes. I got a call from a young lady who knows me and she said Sherry, you need to go on to a Facebook page. There are pictures posted of your daughter and you are going to be shocked at what you see,” Sherry told WFMD.

The firefighter claims to have offered a public apology on his Facebook page and a personal apology to the family, reports the Frederick News Post. But Sherry believes his words ring hollow. She has since started Justice for Jayden, a Facebook page dedicated to telling Jayden’s story and providing updates on the aftermath.

A post on the page from Sherry states:

“He sent me a apology only after I told him I was reporting it to Face Book (sic) and his company, so was it sincere? NO! It was cover your own butt! Then to turn around and tell me he did it as a training tool for his fire company? Seriously?”

This story is still developing. Feel free to head over to Justice for Jayden and offer your support.