Megan Brennan, 19, who has the mental age of a one-year-old, was enjoying a final dinner with her family at Ham Farm Harvesters before going into full-time care.
Their meal was interrupted when the manager complained that Megan was annoying customers and asked the family to leave.
The manager said, according to Megan’s mother Helen, “'If you can’t keep her quiet I am going to have to ask you to leave.' He claimed other people had complained. We were stunned. They were not accommodating at all.
"We asked people if they wanted us to leave. No one said they had complained so we refused to go. We’ve been to far posher restaurants and never been asked to leave.”
Megan suffers from severe mental and physical disability caused by Angleman syndrome. She communicates by raising her voice and making sounds.
When Helen asked the manager whether he had read the Disability Discrimination Act, she said he had no idea what to do.
“At the end he knew how upset we were but he didn’t even apologize,” Helen said.
The event was upsetting for Megan’s entire family.
“Megan is moving into full-time care but her goodbye meal for her carers was completely ruined by being asked to leave. It was horrible. I have never seen my mother so upset,” Megan’s brother Jack told the Sunday People.
An apology was later given by the Eastleigh, Hampshire, restaurant, and a gift certificate offered for the family’s trouble.
“We apologize to Megan and her family and are investigating their complaint thoroughly,” a spokesman for Harvester said.
Source:www.opposingviews.com