Jeniffer Castro, a 29-year-old banker from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, had gone viral in December after refusing to give up her window seat to a crying child. She has now officially filed charges against both the airline and the person who filmed her.
A video of the incident was posted to social media
Castro unexpectedly gained millions of followers on Instagram after a video of the incident went viral on social media. The video was filmed by a fellow passenger and not the mother of the crying child, as some outlets had initially reported.
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She sued GOL Airlines and the person who filmed her
The 29-year-old woman claims she has officially filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for distress and damages against GOL Airlines, adding that she also filed a suit against the passenger who filmed her.
Castro didn’t reveal the amount she was suing for, saying she’s keeping “judicial secrecy.”
Castro aims for this to never happen again
The newly made influencer said she wants to stop such public shaming and non-consensual exposure from happening again in the future.
“Since that incident, my life has taken a turn I could never have imagined,” Castro said.
Castro reflected on the incident
“What should have been just an ordinary flight turned into an extremely embarrassing situation, exposing me unfairly and causing consequences that affected both my personal and professional life,” she added.
“I was the target of judgments, attacks, and speculation from people who don’t even know the full story.”
A child had been sitting in her pre-assigned seat
Castro recalled the incident, saying that as she was boarding the plane, she found a child sitting in her pre-assigned window seat and waited for him to move.
“I waited for him to correctly accommodate himself in another seat, and then I sat down in my seat,” she explained.
Someone started filming her without her consent
The incident escalated when a fellow passenger pulled out their phone and started filming her without consent. She recalled, “Throughout the flight, the child cried a lot, which, although uncomfortable, is understandable when traveling.”
“What surprised me was the fact that a person who had nothing to do with the situation started filming me without permission, insulting me and trying to publicly embarrass me simply because I didn’t want to change seats,” she added.
Castro received a lot of backlash from the video
The video which went viral on social media caused Castro a load of backlash, with the banker saying she suffered a lot with her mental health because of it. “My reaction was complete shock,” she said, before adding, “I never imagined that something so simple could take on such proportions.”
“Professionally, my life has changed a lot, so much so that today I am no longer in the field I worked in before. I was a banker. In my personal life, at the height of the repercussions, I practically didn’t leave the house.”
She said she was afraid due to the backlash
“In addition to the emotional impact, I was also afraid, because we know that, unfortunately, there are many bad people in the world,” Castro said.
The public scrutiny has now caused Castro to take legal action. She explained, “I decided to sue the airline because what happened to me was a huge embarrassment, and this situation should never have reached this point.”
“No one deserves to go through what I went through, being filmed, insulted, and attacked just for exercising a basic right,” she added.
Castro is not suing the child’s mother
“This lawsuit is not just about reparations, but also about setting a limit on this type of behavior. We all have rights, and they must be respected, regardless of other people’s opinions,” Castro explained.
She also added that there is no action taken towards the child’s mother, “We gathered all the necessary evidence and took the appropriate measures against whoever filmed me. There is no action against the child’s mother, only against those who violated my privacy.”
