Madelyn Sheaffer, from Independence, Missouri, has accused employees at the Adventure Oasis Water Park of discriminating against her because of her fuller figure.
Sheaffer went to the park on Tuesday with four other members of her family. After she got into the pool with her niece and nephew, she was approached by staff who told her she had to put on shorts because her bottoms were too small, she claims.
When the supervisor came over at her request, she was told to cover up or leave the park.
'I just felt like I was singled out,' Sheaffer told 41Action News. 'I felt like it was both age and body discrimination and I felt like I could look around me and I could see a handful of other girls half my age, wearing the same size swimming suit and not being singled out and told to put on clothes or leave.'
When she asked the supervisor to call the police so she could file a complaint, officers arrived and escorted her off the premises.
She wrote about the incident on her Facebook page, and claimed the officers sympathized with her.
'Fifteen minutes later the police did arrive and said that while they did not agree, they had to do their job,' she wrote.
'"We can't actually say anything", they said as we walked outside, "but I hope from the expressions on our face you can tell how we feel". They were compassionate. They too, thought it was ridiculous.
Officials at the Adventure Oasis Water Park had no comment about the incident.
An assistant of the City Manager said that 'the facility made the call and we rely on their judgment'.
Sheaffer added to her post on Facebook: 'This was not a thong. It was a standard, summertime, two piece, string bikini. The same as everyone else, who felt confident enough in their body to wear one.
'I am a 43-year-old woman who did not have the confidence, or the body, to put on a bikini until was [sic] 40 years old. I will not be discriminated against because I look too good in one.'
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