The protest held at the MD Cracker Barrel after school says that special ed. students ‘refuse service’

Parents are outraged after school officials in Maryland notified them that their special education students were denied work at a Cracker Barrel restaurant during a field trip.

The walkout was part of a community-based educational program that serves students with autism and significant intellectual disabilities in the Charles County Public Schools District of Dr. James Craik Elementary School.

Although Cracker Barrel issued an apology in a statement, parents told USA TODAY that they “saw red” after being informed of the incident, and another parent organized a protest at the site.

“I can’t put into words how I felt — anger, sadness and anxiety,” Dustin Reed, whose 7-year-old daughter Madelynn attended the public hearing, previously told USA TODAY. “I’ve spent a lot of time crying for him and praying that he doesn’t have to go through this again.”

Here’s what we know.

Parents say Cracker Barrel has refused to serve special education students

On Tuesday, a group of 11 students and seven employees of the Charles County Public Schools District were “rejected” from a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Waldorf, Maryland, Superintendent Maria Navarro said in a statement.

In his statement, Navarro said Charles County Public Schools staff informed Waldorf Cracker Barrel of the group’s size and purpose of visit, but were told reservations were not necessary.

Students in the school district’s ACHIEVE and SOAR programs attend community-based field trips once a month between November and May that allow students to practice practical skills and interact with the community.

Charles County Public Schoo… by greta.cross.photo

The group did not eat as the manager of the restaurant told the group that the restaurant “cannot accommodate your group” and that the restaurant should be removed from the approved list of public education restaurants, a special education teacher in Charles County Public Schools. Katie Schneider told parents in an email.

The group placed an order to leave, but Schneider said in his email to parents that students were mistreated by staff while waiting for the order.

“He refused to serve them, (the staff) didn’t even ask if our students wanted a drink or anything. Our students were well behaved and sat at the tables patiently, who knows how hard it can be, waiting for their food and drinks to go,” Schneider wrote.

After an hour of waiting, Schneider said the students were motivated to wait outside the school bus and eat lunch at the elementary school.

In this email, Schneider notes that the group was willing to split into different tables and that they saw some people being seated and leaving in the time it took them to get their food.

Cracker Barrel, in a statement provided to USA TODAY earlier, said a “staffing challenge” led to the closure of the restaurant’s second dining room and caused “confusion” in handling the group’s request.

“At Cracker Barrel, we strive to create a welcoming environment for all of our guests, and we understand that this group’s recent visit to our Waldorf location did not meet our expectations,” Cracker Barrel said in a statement. “We are taking this matter seriously and are working directly with the leadership of the group to better understand what happened, apologize and fix things.”

A protest is planned at Cracker Barrel

The protest, organized by Reed, is scheduled for Sunday, December 15, at the Waldorf Cracker Barrel.

Forty-five people have responded to the protest’s Facebook page – titled #CanWeEatNow – since Sunday.

Umhlanga said he hoped that the protest would make it clear that just because some children have different abilities, that does not make them inferior to anyone else.

“I’ve fought to protect him (and) to protect him from the world but I can’t forget why we’re doing this,” said Reed.

This article first appeared in USA TODAY: Protest called off after Cracker Barrel ‘refused service’ was special ed. students