(Screengrab from 9News news report)
Tech giant Apple has issued an apology after an employee at one of the company’s stores in Australia asked a group of Black teenagers to leave because the employee was afraid the teens would steal something.
According to ABC News, the incident occurred on Nov. 10 at an Apple store in the High Point Shopping Centre in Melbourne, Australia. The six teenagers were 10th grade students at nearby Maribyrnong College who were all wearing their school uniforms at the time. The teens were interested in the new iPhone 6, but when they approached a table they saw two security guards circling their table.
The teens decided to leave the store, but eventually came back. When they re-entered, a security guard told them to leave, ABC reported, prompting one of the young men to start filming a subsequent exchange with an Apple Store employee.
One of the students uploaded the video to Facebook, where it was viewed more than 200,000 times, according to CNBC.
“These guys are just a bit worried about your presence in our store,” the Apple staff member can be heard saying in the video.
One of the students replied, “Why would we steal something?”
“End of discussion,” the staff member is heard saying. “I need to ask you to leave our store.”
Maribyrnong College principal Nick Scott found out about the incident and brought the students into his office the next day to talk about what happened.
“What those boys were doing in that Apple store was no different to what every other kid does in that Apple store, which is fawning over really cool devices, playing with them, taking photos of each other,” Scott told The New York Times. “Just kids being kids and certainly being no different to quite a few other kids at the time.”
Scott took the boys back to the store to get an apology, and later released a statement.
“Inclusion and diversity are among Apple’s core values,” the company said in the statement, according to The Mac Observer, an online news site covering Apple. “We believe in equality for everyone, regardless of race, age, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. That applies throughout our company, around the world with no exceptions.”
“We will continue to do everything in our power to ensure all our customers are treated the way they should be,” the company said.
Twitter: @hunter_jonathan