A Cracker Barrel restaurant reportedly refused to serve a bunch of scholars with disabilities from a Maryland public faculty district who had been out on a neighborhood subject journey.
On Dec. 3, a bunch of 11 college students and 7 staffers from Charles County Public Schools visited a Cracker Barrel location in Waldorf, Maryland, as a part of a community-based instruction, which is a method of instructing useful expertise to college students with disabilities in a real-world setting.
But the restaurant refused to serve the scholars and requested that Cracker Barrel be faraway from the varsity’s checklist of CBI areas, in accordance with a letter written by Charles County Public Schools Superintendent Maria Navarro on Dec. 5. The college students had been allowed to put a takeout order, the letter mentioned.
“Our college students and employees are our No. 1 precedence, and we’re disheartened to study in regards to the alleged remedy they obtained whereas taking part in an exercise designed to coach our college students utilizing real-world functions,” Navarro wrote. “The alleged remedy of CCPS college students and employees at Cracker Barrel is one which nobody ought to expertise.”
School workers had notified the restaurant forward of the journey and informed them the dimensions of the celebration, however Cracker Barrel workers informed the varsity they didn’t want a reservation, in accordance with CCPS.
“That we disenchanted this group of scholars and academics throughout their latest go to is unacceptable to us, and we sincerely apologize,” Cracker Barrel mentioned in an announcement.
The biscuits-and-gravy chain mentioned its “missteps” had been “unrelated to the scholars’ capabilities.”
The Cracker Barrel location was unable to seat a celebration of 18 as a result of it had “sudden staffing points” and had closed a part of its second eating room, the corporate mentioned.
“Our failure to comply with sure operational protocols mixed with poor communication on our half then led to misunderstandings and misperceptions,” Cracker Barrel mentioned.
One faculty district guardian shared an electronic mail she obtained from her son’s instructor in regards to the incident on Facebook.
In the e-mail, the instructor referred to as it a “very unhealthy expertise” and mentioned the employees had been impolite to the varsity workers and ignored the scholars. The Cracker Barrel location refused to serve the group even when they broke into smaller teams at separate tables, the instructor wrote.
The supervisor on obligation and normal supervisor had been each “very disregarding,” the instructor mentioned. The normal supervisor allegedly requested to be faraway from the checklist for future journeys as a result of they don’t serve “this kind of group,” the instructor mentioned.
The firm mentioned it’s working with the varsity and local people to study from the expertise and do higher sooner or later. Navarro confirmed that the district supervisor mentioned the enterprise can be keen to work with the varsity district.
Several different eating places and companies shortly reached out to supply their areas as websites for future CBI journeys, the superintendent mentioned.
