8-Year-Old Girl With Prosthetic Leg Kicked Off Slide At Oklahoma Water Park

An 8-year-old little girl with a prosthetic leg was kicked off a slide at an Oklahoma water park and allegedly told that “those [the prosthetics] aren’t allowed on our equipment” by an attendant.

The little girl’s family is outraged that 8-year-old Averie Mitchell was not allowed to go down a slide, because her prosthetic leg supposedly scratched the surface. Averie was forced to climb down from the slide at the Frontier City’s Wild West Water Works in Oklahoma City, when the person in charge told her the artificial limb was not allowed, the Daily Mail reports.

“The lead attendant came over there, pointed at her leg and said, ‘Those aren’t allowed on our equipment.’ She was crying. She thought she had done something wrong.”

The 8-year-old has a prosthetic leg because she was born with a condition in which a “false joint” forms halfway between her knee and ankle. Averie had her right leg amputated below the knee when she was 2-years-old, her father explained.

However, despite her disability, the 8-year-old is able to carry on with a normal life and is like any other girl her age.

“She was basically born with two broken bones in her leg. She can do a whole lot more than I can,” John Mitchell, 45, of Hugo, Oklahoma, told the publication.

This is why her parents are so incensed by the cold and uncaring way in which the feisty 8-year-old was ridiculed and dismissed from the slide. Security was called to escort the family to the Oklahoma water park’s gate.

The little girl’s frustrated father says the prosthetic leg is covered by a gel sleeve for instances such as these. Mitchell added it would be impossible to scratch the slide’s surface.

“I was pretty upset. We’ve been to several water parks, even that one, and it’s never been an issue. She’s gone down slides just like anyone else.

I just want them to change their policy. If it’s not a safety issue, then it shouldn’t be an issue at all.”

For the 8-year-old’s mother, this goes to something millions of amputees are faced with every day, as she expressed in a heartfelt post on Facebook.

“This is about the almost 2 million amputees out there. All the soldiers coming home with limb losses, the individuals with accidents, diabetics.

Just because you are missing a limb doesn’t make you a ‘Safety’ risk. These people have overcome great odds and can do more with what they were given than most of us ‘able’ bodied people can.”

In a statement to KFOR-TV, the Frontier City’s Wild West Water Works apologized to the family of the 8-year-old with the prosthetic leg for causing the family “disappointment, due to our Ride Admissions Policy.” The family was reimbursed for the tickets they purchased Saturday.

“We never want to refuse our guests the opportunity to enjoy our attractions, but we must also always follow guidelines that have been set by our industry to insure the safety of all guests.”

Do you think the water park was justified in kicking the 8-year-old girl off the slide because she had a prosthetic leg?

[Image via Kimberly Mitchell / New York Daily News]