Is this legal? Any attorneys out there? Long rant. Update page 9.

[bluie]

I took the suggestion of mom2chicksandpups and found the corporate phone number. The person on the line was very sympathetic and said that he had no legitimate reason to refuse service. She is forwarding the complaint to the owner of the restaurant. I am easy to get rid of too, and I also don't go around looking for a fight. I will let a lot of things go when its just myself involved, but when I perceive that my students are being treated unfairly it just brings out the mama lion in me. Another thing is, these kids will order the supersize meals, and then go back for seconds or dessert. This place will make a lot of money in a very short time on these kids. I will definitely post a follow-up tomorrow when I get home.

 

[fowltemptress]

School trips I've been on always involved a couple of chaperons taking down food orders and going to grab the food while the kids waited at a park or some such place for the "picnic" to begin.

 

[foweler]

He might be a lazy man. He might be a racist.
He might be a good team leader who doesn't want to see his already stressed out people pushed past their breaking point.
Or any number of other possible scenarios.

How would you ever know for sure without sitting down and getting to know the man?

You are mad because you beleive he pre-judged your kids but it sounds to me like you and a lot of people replying have pre-judged him as well.

Regardless, I have to agree on three things said here already.


1) The owner would most likely not care how close to the edge his people were ( should that really be the case) and would be livid at the thought of his manager turning away large parties. Would you want your employees unnecessarily torpedoing your bottom line?

2) It is completely within the rights of a business owner to choose who they will and wont do business with (today at least).
Would you want to be forced to teach a dangerous sociopath (as an extreme example only, nothing inferred)? You might choose to but that's your free will.

3) Calling 911 for something like that is not only moronic, its illegal. Like what you started this thread with, A question about the law. Would you want to be waiting for help because someone who didn't understand the definition of an emergency tied up the emergency services? They might charge you if you tried and rightfully so.

If you can plan to not take lunch at noon do so every time. I haven't been to a busy resteraunt at crunch time since I went into business for myself. I know that's not always possible but I would think that this situation might go a ways towards convincing your people that it would be a good idea if possible.

I say: go in anyway, it is their job to deal with crowds.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

Okay. I've read this whole thread and I have to tell you that I am sitting here with my mouth open in total shock. I don't know what is legal but I am totally amazed that people think it's okay for any restaurant to refuse service. Back in the 60s a lunch counter owner did that and helped launch the civil rights movement! Now I realize that was long before many of you were even born, but STILL! Surely you read about it in school!

Whether it is racial discrimination or age discrimination, it's still DISCRIMINATION!

Rusty

 

[preppy*hippie*chick]

As far as I can tell, he never refused or threatened to refuse service. He (rather akwardly) said it was a bad time to bring a bus and asked her if she could come an hour earlier. At this point, I don't believe that he is even aware that the group in question involves minorities.

In the past, I have had drivers of tour buses show up at off peak hours and ASK if we could take a bus. People have called to arrange a date and timeframe but no one has ever just called to say we'll be here in the middle of your lunch rush. Courtesy on both sides of the counter goes a long way.

I don't think that asking her to come at a different time shows intent to refuse service or rascism. It shows that he would like for it to go well.

 

[bluie]

Quote:
In response, I would like to say the following:
1. Regardless of what the owner says, nobody would have had to get close to the edge because I was attempting to give them advance notice that we were coming so they could plan ahead.
2. A lot of people are saying this, but a brief internet search suggests that this is actually not the case. Service can be refused if someone has poor hygiene, is dangerous, loud, inappropriately dressed, disruptive, etc. Also if serving the group would cause the restaurant to go over the maximum capacity. Restaurant owners can refuse service to "unprotected groups" such as previous employees. But if you start refusing service to "protected groups" such as a specific age group and/or minorities, then you had better have a good lawyer. Even if his reason was the large group, he had no good reason. Like someone else said, if it was a large group of senior citizens, it is unlikely that he would have refused them even if they would have caused his regulars to leave. Also, I cannot refuse to teach any students. I have students who have done some pretty bad stuff. I have to teach anyone they put into my class. I cannot pick and choose.
3.OK, OK, I get it. I got a little carried away. I seriously doubt if I would have gone that far.

I would love to be able to choose when I go to lunch, when I take kids on a field trip to lunch, and who I get to teach, what time I go to work and leave work, etc. You are looking at this from a business owner's point of view. Why don't you try looking at it from a teacher's point of view. I have a lot of protocol to follow that you don't have to worry about.

 

[bluie]

Quote:
THANK YOU!!!!

 

[foweler]

There is a fine line between discrimination and the freedom to do business with whom you chose.
There will always be discrimination against all different groups of people (if you choose to actually cast people into groups that is).

You CAN see that by forcing free business owners to follow a broad blanket of impersonal rules (as opposed to dealing with matters on a case by case basis) you are shooting all of our future freedoms in the foot. I hope you can see that.

Case in point on the case by case basis; people can be arses, even members of groups commonly discriminated against.
Should an arse be allowed to bully decent people just because of his/her potential for "discrimination".

Mind you that I have not and will not assert that your students have or ever will do anything wrong without seeing it for myself first.
I'm sure they are good kids just as you have said.
Its just that you should be mindful of the fact that overplaying the discrimination card can and will lead to a loss of freedom in the long run. Is that what you want?

 

[DuckLady]

preppy*hippie*chick :

As far as I can tell, he never refused or threatened to refuse service. He (rather akwardly) said it was a bad time to bring a bus and asked her if she could come an hour earlier. At this point, I don't believe that he is even aware that the group in question involves minorities.

In the past, I have had drivers of tour buses show up at off peak hours and ASK if we could take a bus. People have called to arrange a date and timeframe but no one has ever just called to say we'll be here in the middle of your lunch rush. Courtesy on both sides of the counter goes a long way.

I don't think that asking her to come at a different time shows intent to refuse service or rascism. It shows that he would like for it to go well.

I agree with this one.

So call the manager and say
"You know I tried to reschedule and was not able to. I am sorry for the short notice, but I would still like to bring my kids in for lunch and next time we will do our best to come in a little earlier or a little later."

Courtesy all around, everyone is happy and everyone gets their french fries.​

 

[cariboujaguar]

Quote:
Thats funny because we've lived in a trailer park with crack head druggies for a year now and I dont' even want to THINK about how many times we've had to call about rukus, parties and noise disturbances at 1-4 AM. The first thing I say on the phone is 'non emergency noise complaint' and I'm not in jail... I've called on many other things that were not emergencies but could cause a problem/accident or things I've witnessed like drugs trade etc and still not in jail...

In this case I wouldn't think the police would do much, but the newspapers would eat this up with a spoon! let us know how it works out!