Pardon me, but, is this the year 2008?  And are we in the United States of America?

The reason that I ask these questions is because a fellow blogger, who just so happens to be deaf, was so poorly treated yesterday at a
Steak and Shake in Chicago, that I was wondering if we were in some kind of weird a$$ time warp. She was picking up her kids from school and in between schools, she decided to go through the drive-thru of Steak and Shake for a shake for herself and her child.

She is deaf, so she just pulled up to the window. The guy working the window refused to serve her unless she drove around the restaurant and started at the speaker. She repeatedly explains to him that she can’t HEAR the speaker - and he continues to refuse to serve her!

Flabbergasted - I was just flabbergasted reading through her post - and then, in the comments, she revealed that the gentleman with the heart as big as Texas that she was dealing with - was the MANAGER!! At that point, I became nauseous. It would be one thing if some smart-mouthed teenager needed a talking-to, but, the manager?!

That is so unbelievable! He even went so far as to threaten to call the police on her - what?! You just need to go read it in her words - she obviously tells the story much better than I! You will find her story here: Steak and Shake Denies Service

She has been contacted by them and has set up a meeting with someone from the company and dammit!  Something REALLY GOOD better come out of this, because, there are quite a few riled up bloggers ready to go to bat for her!

Come on, Steak and Shake - fix this for this sweet lady and educate your people properly on the laws that protect Americans with disabilities!

Well, heck - that was always the rule when I was in school! Right! This is a crazy story, ya’ll:

And I understand that the student was actually trying to challenge the school on their rules. And I could see the ‘all black’ rule if that was related to gang activity. But - no political t-shirts in school? What the hell are we teaching these kids? So this is what their government class sounds like:

“Ok, kids, today we’re going to talk about the presidential elections, but, first let’s shut the door. The first rule about government class is that you don’t talk about government class.”

Haha!

And it is funny, because, it reminds me of a day I ‘challenged’ the dress code when I was in high school. I had these shorts, that were almost a skirt (very blousy/billowy - I don’t know what you call that) and they were really long, practically to my knees. And I had always worn them to school. And no one had ever said a thing to me about them. And then one day, some staff member decided that they didn’t like them and sent me to the office. Ugh.

And as my parents both worked, and I didn’t have a car, I was sent to walk home and change. Which I did. Heehee. I changed into my favorite miniskirt - which was way shorter than those darn ’shorts’!! And to make it even sweeter - I put on my roller skates and my walkman and roller skated back to school! Ha! I remember what …oh damn. I usually always remember what song was playing on my walkman. Now that I want to tell you what it was, it leaked out my ear and won’t come back! Doesn’t that figure?

I’ll come back and tell you when my brain stops teasing me like this. (I knew the song as I started this post…nuts, I tell you, just nuts.)

Let me tell you, though, I spent the rest of that school day in SMUG heaven!!

It will be interesting to see what comes of this young man’s case.