Parents say they were disappointed by an emotional meeting with Cracker Barrel executives on Monday, a week after a group of special education students were turned away from dine-in service at the restaurant's Waldorf, Maryland location.
Parents reported meeting with two senior Cracker Barrel executives on Monday alongside leaders from the Charles County Public Schools District to discuss how a group of special education students were treated at the Cracker Barrel in Waldorf.
Tension and emotions were high throughout the meeting, at which 20-25 people attended at the school district's F.B. Gwynn Educational Center, parents Johnna Penrod and Elise Horne told USA TODAY. Both mothers attended Monday's meeting.
On Dec. 3, a group of 11 students and seven staff members from the district were "refused service" at the Waldorf Cracker Barrel while on a community-based instruction field trip, Superintendent Maria Navarro said in a statement. The students attend Dr. James Craik Elementary School and were part of the district's ACHIEVE program, for students with "significant cognitive disabilities," and the SOAR program, for students with autism.
Penrod's 7-year-old daughter Madelynn, who is nonverbal and has autism, was one of the 11 students. Horne's son did not attend the trip to Cracker Barrel.
Both Penrod and Horne, mother of a 9-year-old nonverbal, autistic son who also attends the Charles County Public Schools District, said one of the executives apologized that the community felt as if the students had been discriminated against.
"That really upset the parents," Horne said.
Horne added that the executive also told the group that staff at the Waldorf location provided her with a conflicting account of what happened to the student group. Horne said "that really caused an uproar as well," and said some in the room felt as if the teachers were being accused of lying. She said her son also attends community-based instruction trips, but has never had any negative experiences.
Penrod and Dustin Reed, Madelynn's father, also told USA TODAY that the executives told meeting attendees that restaurant staff had denied what had been reported by Charles County Public Schools educators.
Cracker Barrel confirmed the meeting was held on Monday, but declined to comment on the details of the meeting and did not identify the executives who participated.
More: Cracker Barrel dismisses 3 workers after 'unacceptable' handling of special education students
At the restaurant last week, the group of Charles County Public Schools students and seven accompanying staff members were told by Cracker Barrel staff that the restaurant couldn't accommodate them and was asked to remove the location from an approved list of places for such field trips, special education teacher Katie Schneider told parents with students at the outing in an email.
In a statement shared with USA TODAY, Cracker Barrel said restaurant staff did not refuse the group service, but operation breakdowns caused by short staffing and poor communication "led us to fall well short of our service standards that day."
The restaurant permitted the students and staff to place a to-go order, school staff said. After about an hour of waiting for carryout meals, the students moved to the school bus outside to wait and ate their lunch back at the elementary school.
The company let go of three workers, including the general manager, and said it would provide training to workers at the Waldorf location in wake of the incident.
In response to last week's events, Reed organized a protest to be held at the Waldorf Cracker Barrel on Sunday afternoon. As of Thursday, over 200 Facebook users had responded with interest in the protest, many of which said they are parents of special needs children.
Anne Strober, the mother of a 24-year-old autistic son and a parent support specialist with the Weinfeld Education Group, said learning the news last week was "triggering" for her. She said she recalled a similar incident in which her son was treated poorly on a field trip when he was in third grade.
"It was a horrible experience and when I read about the Cracker Barrel thing, it just brought all that memory back," Strober said. She recalled being so angry when they got home from the field trip, of which she was a chaperone, that she was shaking and called the establishment, which she did not name, to relay the unpleasant experience.
Autism is found in roughly 1 in 36 children in the U.S., or 2.7%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Strober said when her son was diagnosed with autism in 2005, only 1 in 166 children were diagnosed autism. She said the increasing volume of children diagnosed with autism is "alarming," as more parents are desperate for help and schools are doing the best they can with limited resources.
Penrod said when it came the time to start thinking about school for Madelynn, she and Reed knew their daughter needed a more secluded, one-on-one learning environment.
"The SOAR program really kind of gave us the opportunity to have her in a place where not only could she learn but she could learn comfortably," Penrod said. "She could really strive and blossom and all the things she needs to."
Madelynn has been enrolled in the Charles County Public Schools' SOAR program for three years.
For a few days after the incident, Penrod said she thought about keeping Madelynn home on future community-based instruction days and pulling her from the SOAR program altogether, exploring an educational institution dedicated solely for students with autism. But ultimately, Penrod decided the program is the best place for her daughter.
Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Follow her on X and Instagram @gretalcross. Story idea? Email her at [email protected].