A group of students who have developmental and learning disabilities were denied service at a restaurant while taking part in a life-skills learning program with teachers, Charles County Public Schools said.
In a community email, CCPS Superintendent Maria Navarro wrote 11 students and seven staff members visited a Cracker Barrel in Waldorf, Maryland, Tuesday after notifying the restaurant in advance of the group’s size and purpose. They were told they did not need a reservation.
When they arrived, they were declined service, and a restaurant employee requested it be removed from the list of businesses willing to participate in the program, known as community-based instruction, the superintendent said.
“It broke my heart,” said Dustin Reed, whose 7-year-old daughter is nonverbal.
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The group was able to place a carryout order.
“Pushed off to the side, and just not even paid attention to,” Reed said. “Only thing they wanted to go in there to do was eat some food and enjoy their time there and learn from it.”
He and Johnna Penrod comforted their daughter after she returned from the outing.
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“Even though she can’t speak, you still talk to her like she can understand you, because she can,” Reed said.
A Cracker Barrel spokesperson issued a statement to News4 that reads, in part, “A staffing challenge that day led to the closure of part of our second dining room, creating confusion that impacted the group’s experience. We take this matter seriously and are working directly with the group’s leadership to better understand what happened, extend our apologies, and make things right.”
Small comfort to Reed and Penrod.
“Just because they have different abilities than we do doesn’t mean that they’re less than we are,” Penrod said. “They deserve to be treated like human beings, they deserve to be loved, they deserve to be cared for. They deserve to have morale given to them.”
Since news of this incident became public, a number of Charles County businesses have stepped forward and volunteered to take part in this valuable life-skills program.
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