There appeared recently an op-ed piece in The New York Times written by a (presumably) young mother of two, carrying the headline “Target, Don’t Tell Me You ‘Stand With Black Families.’ ”

The article recounted the experience of this mother’s two Black children, one 13 at the time of the incident, the other 10, as they shopped a Target store accompanied by their white caregiver.

The incident, as the mother described it, centered on the older child, the 13-year-old, who was disabled with autism. Big for his age, the child had long been in the habit of hugging people, a way to demonstrate his affection. As the mother insisted, he meant no harm by the gesture, something most of the recipients of the gesture viewed as “affectionate.”

Not this time.

As he hugged a Target staffer, the woman recoiled, possibly concerned for her safety, possibly merely taken aback by this unexpected show of affection by a total stranger. The caregiver immediately voiced her concern over the incident, apologizing to the staffer and explaining that the child was merely demonstrating affection. The employee, however, was having none of it. The child’s caregiver recalls that the staffer responded to the effect that the gesture was “wild,” as she pushed the boy and threw her arm out as if to strike him, according to the mother. “Fortunately,” she continued, “she missed.”

From there, things got further out of control. To summarize, the caregiver escorted the children out of the store and into their car. Shortly, there was a knock on the window, followed by the voice of a police officer asking the caregiver to “step out of the car.”

The two children, understandably, were terrified at the prospect of a police officer just a car window away. Meanwhile, the caregiver attempted to explain to the officer that the older child suffered from autism.

When the officer finished questioning the caregivers, he turned to several store personnel who were waiting in the background, asking them whether they felt the case should be pursued. The staffers, after contemplating for a time, told the officer to “let them go.” The officer did so, after asking the caregiver if she was OK. He never bothered to ask the children the same question.

Following the incident, the children’s parents repeatedly attempted to reach out to Target to attempt to find some justification for this behavior. The woman’s husband reached out to a Target supervisor who, according to the mother, “appeared dismissive.” Following that, she e-mailed Brian Cornell, Target’s chief executive officer, and other members of the retailer’s executive team, requesting an explanation.

Eventually, a Target employee named Amy — she refused to provide her last name — contacted the mother, who asked the appropriate questions. Amy responded that Target had done a thorough investigation and that surveillance tapes showed that the older child had “put his arms around the employee’s neck as if to choke her.” The mother challenged her version of events, insisting that a hug consists of putting one’s arms around an employee’s neck.

Amy remained wedded to her story, going so far as to refuse to share the video with the mother. The conversation came to an unsatisfactory conclusion — and no Target employee ever attempted to contact the mother again.

The point in recounting this very sad tale is not to place blame or excuse any possible insensitivities on the part of Target or its leadership and employees. The woman who wrote the op-ed — her name is Doreen Oliver, and she wrote and performs in a one-woman show, Everything is Fine Until It’s Not — remains understandably distressed over this event, which occurred in December of 2018.

The point is, however, that this never should have happened. Had Target been given the opportunity, the company would certainly have responded more positively. Brian Cornell, a thoroughly decent and honorable person, would just as certainly have reached out to Oliver to offer an explanation, and probably an apology. And Target would have taken steps to insure — as far as possible — that this kind of sad event would never happen again.

It’s not too late to make amends. As many people have pointed out through the years, it’s not the event that undermines human behavior, it’s the cover-up. The hope here, and the very real belief, is that Target will, at last, reach out to Oliver to reassure her that steps have indeed been taken — and that an event such as this will, in all probability, never happen again.