Mother, son and others fired from Burger King after hiring photo goes viral

CLINTON, Miss. (WLBT/Gray News) - A former Burger King manager in Mississippi says nepotism is the reason she was fired along with her son and his three friends from the fast-food restaurant.

The teens said their jobs were their safe haven with so much violence happening in the area.

“We could have really been out doing that, but we went out and worked,” 15-year-old Corderrion Valentine said.

Corderrion is upset that he and his friends, along with his mother, were recently let go from a Clinton-area Burger King.

His mother, Shakayla Dixon, was the manager at the Burger King location. She said she thought it was a good idea to hire the four teenagers as she was helping them earn some extra money over the summer.

According to Dixon, she was so excited about the hiring that she even shared a photo of them working on social media.

“The post started getting numbers. It got to like over 1,000 likes that night,” she said.

The photo also caught the attention of actor Nick Cannon who then shared it on his Instagram.

Cannon’s post received more than 90,000 likes and hundreds of shares.

Dixon said everything was going great until she received a phone call from her district leader.

“She said we don’t want to turn something good into something bad, but we have some concerns. The concerns she had were the fact that Corderrion is my son and how much money they were getting paid,” Dixon said.

According to Dixon, management told her that minors were supposed to get paid differently than adults.

“It was never brought to my attention beforehand. It came down to policy, but I feel like policy wasn’t in play in the beginning,” she said.

Corderrion admits losing his summer job is heartbreaking.

He said he’s always wanted to be a positive role model and show his generation that it’s OK to work hard and be productive.

“I hope that it portrayed a lot of people to do things good and stop the violence,” he said.

Dixon has created a GoFundMe to help with upcoming school expenses for her son and his friends after they lost their jobs.

Representatives with Burger King did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the situation.

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