(Billy Penn) For some businesses, maintaining both security and inclusive policy can be a delicate balance.
The Tioga-Franklin Savings Bank on Girard Avenue near Oxford displays signs that ask customers to remove “all head coverings and sunglasses prior to entering the bank.” The message isn’t necessarily referring to religious garments such as hijabs, burqas or yarmulkes — but, by definition, it doesn’t allow them either.
In this case, bank staffers insist they’d never discriminate against their customers.
“We do have customers who wear head coverings for religious uses,” Tioga-Franklin operations specialist Amanda Keiper told Billy Penn. “We’ve never forced anyone to remove it.” The policy is meant to target ski masks, and is rarely enforced at all, she added, since staffers know so many of their customers personally.
