MiloThey say the customer is always right, but when one is making fun of a boy with special needs, there's no denying it's wrong. Texas waiter Michael Garcia wasn't about to stand by and let it happen without repercussion either, and what he did was admirable to say the least.
According to KTRK it happened at Houston restaurant Laurenzo's. Kim Castillo was dining there last week with her family, which includes their 5-year-old son, Milo, who has Down syndrome. When a group seated at a table near them got up and moved, Kim said she wondered if it was because of them, but wasn't sure. She told FoxNews.com: "Milo wasn't being bad, he was just talking and making little noises."
Garcia was sure, however, because he overheard the man make a horrible remark to this family while they moved.
He said: "Special needs children need to be special somewhere else."
I know. I can't think of a better word than vile to describe someone like that, and Garcia wasn't about to the let the man get away with it. Even though he was a long-time, regular customer, he flat-out refused to serve him.
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Garcia told the station: "It was very disturbing. My personal feelings just took over and I told this man, 'I'm sorry, I can't serve you.' It upset me because he's a 5-year-old little boy. He's an angel. He's precious!"
Good for him. The challenges families with special needs children face are plentiful enough. Everyday things that we take for granted can be full of issues and anxiety for them. Good times, too, of course, but I think they all deserve support from society, not mockery and disdain. And if you can't even be bothered to sit by someone with special needs in a restaurant, well, then being refused service in a restaurant is the least of what you deserve.
Fortunately there are people like Garcia who restore our faith in humanity. If only everyone was as brave and kind as him, maybe the ignorant assholes of the world would learn to keep their mouths shut.
Garcia and the restaurant have been lauded since the incident, as well they should. But the waiter says what this story is really about shouldn't be lost: "It is about Milo, it is about educating ourselves and when people are different, why should you treat them any different? It's fear of the unknown."
How would you react if you heard someone say something like this?
Image via KTRK-TV
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Comments 77
People are so cruel! how would they like it if it was they son and someone made a comment like that. He parents have been blessed to have an angel by their side. God bless them!
It's understanding to want to move if there is a noisy kid at the table next to yours, or a kid who keeps trying to mess with you while you are eating, but all kids do stuff like that. There's no need to be hateful and make cruel remarks about an innocent little boy who did nothing wrong. If you want to move to a new table, fine, but have some damn manners!!! "Assholes need to be assholes somewhere else" :-p
I agree that guy is a scumbag for saying that, but there are people like that all over. We were in a restaurant where an older couple at the table in the corner thought our children were being so good that they bought them desert!!! Boy were we proud parents!
Then arrived the couple on the other side of us. The gentleman looked at our kids, smiled at them and sat down. The female dog looked at our kids, gave them a look of disgust and went back to the maitre de and asked for another table. They moved into anther room completely.
Vegeta, yes the man and everyone else has freedom of speech, but that does not mean that you have freedom of repercussions of said free speech. You have the freedom to call me a bitch, or call my child a foul name, but that will not save you from the repercussion of my fist meeting your face. That man and his family suffered the consequences of his "free speech", and they had to deal with it. Good for that waiter!