COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. -- Jessica Simmons, the owner of the River City Tattoo shops in the area, said she was “horrified, disgusted, and embarrassed” after hearing about a Facebook post written by her now-former employee late Monday night.
The post read in part: “You don’t want children? Guess what keep your **** legs closed and have some *** respect for yourselves.”
When challenged, the poster then posted in part “Go coat hanger yourselves, my taxes allow me to have input.”
“There are no words for how I felt about what he said, I’m a mother as well,” said Simmons.
Jessica Simmons
Simmons said she fired the employee, who CBS 6 has chosen not to identify, immediately after she found out about the posts on Tuesday morning.
She said he had worked for River City Tattoo shop in Colonial Heights for nearly four years.
“I didn’t fire him for his views, I fired him for using a public forum to represent my company as well as express these disgusting comments regarding women,” she said.
The man who posted the Facebook comments told CBS 6 he regretted what he called “the mean things” he said, but did not want this to reflect who he is as a person.
He went on to say the post came from family stress and a loss in the family.
He said he did not believe he should be fired from something posted on his personal page, and that he did not break any laws. He added a lot of the post was taken out of context.
While he said he was in no way speaking for River City Tattoo, Simmons said she doesn’t want that post associated with her or her company.
“It was degrading to women, it was vulgar, and I wouldn’t for one second stand behind something like that,” she said.
