While these news links are not always permanent, it was here when I first drafted this. The Facebook post in which the mother detailed the complaint (from her perspective) is as follows:
Saturday night the family and I decided to go to Outback Steakhouse in Glen Burnie for dinner. We were seated almost immediately. We ordered our drinks while skimming the menu then finally ordered our dinner. Our meals came out in good time and all of us were enjoying ourselves up until we were asked to leave because of a noise complaint about my 4 year old son. My son Killian was born with a neurological disorder that affects his speech called Childhood Apraxia of Speech. This disorder affects Killian in many ways especially communication and behavioral. He is a very energetic kid with much to say, however when he speaks his words are unclear.
A man approached our table about 5 minutes after our food was brought out and introduced himself as the manager. He asked us how our meals were but he didn’t stop there. This gentleman said that he received a noise complaint for my child. He said that he was very uncomfortable coming to our table to tell us that but unfortunately we needed to finish our meals and leave. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was in total shock! As an apology he gave us a $20 Outback credit to use at a later date. But needless to say there isn’t going to be a later date. Why would I subject my son and the rest of my family to that type of discrimination? What would ever make me want to return? Would we be asked to leave again if my son were to be loud? This is not ok and I’m not stopping here. I will be in contact with corporate. I ask that everyone that sees this post to please share it. Outback labels itself as a family friendly restaurant just not families with special needs restaurant.
As you can see, it was not the first time they had eaten at the particular restaurant (previously without incident). They were not simply told to pack up their food and leave. And they were not denied future access to the restaurant.
I have great sympathy and respect for those who have disabilities, and those who care for them (at any age).
But the issue that this mother is failing to see is that there was evidently a problem with another patron over the behavior of the child. The manager clearly did not want to make the request, but felt obligated. Why? Because other patrons were having problems with the noise. So if the noise was generally above what would otherwise have been allowed without comment, should the manager simply ignore the request of other patrons?
But was the behavior otherwise within norms? That is not addressed. The only issue raised is that the behavior is due to disability. So should it have been tolerated in any case? That was never addressed. There was no indication that whatever noise there was should be considered within allowable standards for anyone else.
And while silence on an issue is not an admission of guilt, it does suggest that it might have been something to NOT bring up.
So the real question here might be “is society required to tolerate anything and everything from the disabled simply because of their disability?” Or alternately, “is there a sound reason for the retention of some standards?” Assuming that answering "NO" to the first, and “YES” to the latter is both the moral and reasonable response, we still have insufficient evidence concerning where this particular incident should fall. But the response of the mother has the appearance of a knee-jerk cry of “foul” simply because a disability is in play.
And that is what we are being asked to respond to. A portion of the facts are presented in a manner that is begging us to respond emotionally, but without enough information to know whether that response is warranted.
And before you or anyone starts in on me, show me where the information provided (news article or facebook page) gave enough information to declare this simply about insensitivity to the disabled. It isn’t there. Only the presumption that disability trumps everything and anyone who disagrees should be cursed (read the comments on the facebook feed), vilified, and deleted.
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