Girls from summer camp asked to leave Jersey Shore store

NEW JERSEY (FOX 5 NY) - A store worker at the Jersey Shore was reportedly suspended while Jenkinson's Boardwalk investigated why a group of black girls was asked to leave the shop.

The seven black girls, part of Paterson-based summer youth camp Princess to Queenz, were inside the Jenkinson's Aquarium gift shop on Friday when they were booted from the store.

A worker told the girls they did not have a chaperone. When the girls came back with a chaperone, the worker told them they were not welcomed there.

“Then I hear screaming,” Camp director Attiyya Barrett told the Daily Voice. “I hear the woman say, ‘Didn’t I say you’re not welcome here?’

Barrett, 42, confronted the worker and recorded their conversation after she said someone else in the store was also recording.

In the video, the worker tells Barrett that she didn't believe the person that came back with them was their chaperone.

The group left the store and several of the girls were crying during the ride home, Barrett said.

"I had to explain to 40 girls that they are still valuable and they’re green dollars still spends even if racist folks try to hurt them! " Barrett wrote on Facebook.

Various reports indicate the worker was suspended and that Jenkinson's was working with the camp to make amends.

"We sincerely apologize to the girls from the camp group for the way they felt upon leaving. We have been in contact with the group leader and will continue to work with her to make amends," Jenkinson's wrote in a statement. "The employee involved in the incident has been suspended while we conduct an investigation. Any necessary further action will be determined after said investigation."

"My princesses left with poise and a lesson on their money is good money and shouldn’t be spent everywhere," Barrett wrote on Facebook.