Dorney Park offers to rehire special needs employee after social media outrage

SOUTH WHITEHALL TOWNSHIP — When Chris Emery shows off his collection of Dorney Park pins — one for each season he worked at the amusement park — he does so with an ear-to-ear grin and an infectious laugh.

The 29-year-old Berks County man was looking forward to his 13th season when he learned Thursday night that a new type of hiring interview used by the South Whitehall Township park found he “didn’t fit in,” according to his mother, Claudia Emery.

A viral social media post turned all of that around Friday morning, eliciting an offer from a Dorney vice president for her special-needs son to return for the 2016 season.

“It’s been overwhelming,” Claudia Emery said Friday afternoon while sitting in their Hereford Township home. “I told Chris this morning how many people love him.”

Chris Emery took great pride in his contribution to Dorney Park’s park services department, where he worked mostly to keep bathrooms clean for patrons.

His mother said she was troubled that the park used a different hiring process this year, which included group activities such as making a train made of Lego blocks. Though Emery was told that her son could come back in 30 days and interview again, she didn’t see the point.

“Why humiliate him twice?” she said. “It wouldn’t have changed. It would have been the same thing. Chris is Chris. The whole interview was not set up for special-needs people, that’s what it boils down to.”

The family went to bed Thursday night devastated and frustrated, but awoke Friday morning to a social media frenzy in support of Chris. It culminated with an offer from Dorney Vice President Mike Fehnel to have Emery return for the summer.

“I’ve known Chris for many years, and when I became aware of this situation I requested that we immediately reach out to him and his family to let them know that we would happily welcome Chris back for a 13th season,” Fehnel wrote.

In a statement, Dorney Park — one of 14 amusement parks owned by Cedar Fair of Sandusky, Ohio — said the hiring process is designed to “help identify candidates who have the enthusiasm, engagement and problem-solving skills to give our guests the level of service they expect.”

The park said it never declined Emery for employment, but instead offered him coaching and a second interview.

Claudia Emery said the hardest part was trying to explain to her cheerful son that the interview wasn’t a success.

“I told him you didn’t fit in, whatever that meant,” she said. “How do you explain that? That’s what started the whole Facebook frenzy. As a mom, how do you explain that to a special-needs person who has worked a job 12 years? That was my biggest concern.”

Chris Emery, too, was moved by the wave of solidarity across social media.

“People were being nice to me this morning. People I don’t even know,” he said. “It makes me feel happy. It makes me feel happy and proud.”

The online support can be attributed to a Facebook post by Matt Redline, 33, of Northampton, a family friend and former co-worker at Dorney. His post about Chris Emery’s story, which included a photo of his smiling friend, went viral, garnering more than 12,000 shares and reaching people across the country.

“I was seriously just standing up for my friend,” said Redline, who worked summers at Dorney from 2003 to 2010. “He is the most generous, caring person I ever met in my life. But what really hit home for me was that I knew what kind of employee he was. This just struck a place in my heart because I felt so horrible that this was happening to him.”

When Redline went to bed Thursday, he noticed friends were sharing his post, but nothing prepared him for how far the story would travel by morning.

“At first I was really freaked out because I never had this happen before,” Redline said.

He regretted seeing so many nasty comments directed at the park since he enjoyed his time working there and knows Emery did, too.

“I never meant to wage a war,” Redline said. “But this needed to be brought to someone’s attention. Obviously, his disability didn’t prevent him from doing his job or they wouldn’t have hired him back for 12 years.”

Karen Shoemaker, executive director of The Arc of Lehigh and Northampton Counties, said discrimination based on disability is an unfortunate reality. But sometimes even the most well-meaning employers can unintentionally alienate special-needs candidates.

“I think employers who make a change to interviewing processes for employees … don’t always understand the unintended consequences that this could have for someone with a disability,” Shoemaker said. “You need to make sure you’re able to fully assess the asset that a person with a disability can bring to your place of employment.”

Shoemaker said it was nice to see Dorney Park reach out and offer to rehire Emery, but said in cases that don’t become viral sensations, a qualified person is often left jobless.

“For a person with a disability, it’s not just the job they have to deal with, it’s also about perceptions regarding their abilities,” Shoemaker said. “I think there can be a positive outcome to this in terms of people’s perceptions. A diverse workplace is a benefit to any organization.”

Claudia Emery doesn’t want her son to go back to work at Dorney Park this summer despite the park’s offer. But she does hope this situation sparks change.

“It was all a little too late for us. This should never have happened. It just wasn’t fair,” she said. “I’m not going to boycott Dorney. That’s not fair to him either. I just want them to revise that interview process. I hope this helps another family.”

Laurie Mason Schroeder contributed to this story.

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