Disney World workers spit on and harassed for enforcing COVID-19 rules

Disney World workers have allegedly experienced harassment, been spit on and been subject to degrading comments for enforcing COVID-19 safety guidelines the company has put in place amid the pandemic. 

According to Orange County Sheriff’s reports released by the Orlando Sun-Sentinel, employees from Disney’s theme parks, hotel and Disney Springs have been subjects of challenges from guests who were asked to keep their masks on and social distance amid COVID-19. 

In one instance, a man who was staying at one of Disney’s hotels spat on a security guard after he was asked to put a mask on. The man was never identified or charged, according to the paper. 

Another man, Stephen Johnson, drunkenly yelled at a firefighter who was helping his injured wife after the firefighter told him to put on a mask. Johnson threatened to kill the sheriff’s deputy and took the deputy’s gun off his belt, according to the Sentinel.

Johnson was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence and disorderly intoxication. 

“There’s never a day when I don’t have a story,” an employee who works at Disney Springs parking garages to enforce COVID-19 rules told the Sentinel. “I cried the first week I started. It was not a good time at all. Imagine going to work every single day where people ridicule you.”

Allen Beltran was charged with disorderly intoxication and resisting an officer without violence for pulling his mask off and approaching people at Disney Springs in early January, according to the newspaper. He has pleaded not guilty to these charges. 

Service workers across the country have reported angry outbursts from customers who refused to comply with state mandates or business rules that require masks and social distancing.

Last summer, a California woman took to Facebook to blast a Starbucks barista who she said refused to serve her because she did not have a mask on. The woman, Amber Lynn Gilles, said she had a medical exemption. Following the altercation, a GoFundMe page raised over $100,000 for the barista Lenin Gutierrez. 

Gilles filed a lawsuit this week suing the creator of the page for “violation of her right to publicity.” 

The Orange County Sheriff’s also states that guests have yelled at workers, thrown things at them and pushed them and other customers.

“Millions of guests visit our theme parks each year, and in rare instances when things of this nature occur, we hold them accountable,” Disney spokesperson Andrea Finger told the Orlando Sentinel.