The chaperones for a group of Black children were horrified when a server at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Naperville, Illinois, asked them to move because a white customer didn't feel comfortable sitting next to them.
On Monday, the restaurant announced that all of the waiters and managers involved in the situation have been fired.
On Saturday, October 26, Justin Vahl and Marcus Riley along with four adults and 12 children went out to celebrate one of the kids' birthdays after a youth basketball tournament.
However, things took an unexpected turn for the worse when a waiter, who was Black, came up to Vahl and asked what his race was. Vahl, who told The Chicago Tribune he was multiracial, said he was confused and asked the waiter why it mattered.
The waiter plainly explained that one of their regulars, who is white, “doesn’t want Black people sitting near him.” The waiter asked Vahl and his group of 5-year-olds and 9-year-olds to move to another section of the restaurant, but he refused.
After a brief conversation, the manager told the group that someone else had reserved the area.
After the group eventually left the restaurant, he says he was forced to explain to the young Black children why someone would not want them around.
“That was the most troubling thing for me. I’ve never in my entire life experienced something like. To have my children go through that, it brought me to tears,” Riley said.
Vahl's wife Mary posted about the situation on Facebook.
"In 2019, this type of behavior should not be accepted because of certain views. If you don’t want to sit next to certain people in a public restaurant then you should probably eat dinner in the comfort of your own home," Mary wrote in her Facebook post.
"A moment to hangout with a group of friends after a birthday party, turned into a discussion with our young impressionable sons about how we didn’t get kicked out, but willingly CHOSE to leave because of the unfair treatment we were being given," she added.
In an email to the Chicago Tribune, Buffalo Wild Wings spokesperson Clarie Kudlata confirmed that everyone who spoke to Vahl had been terminated.
"We take this incident very seriously and after conducting a thorough, internal investigation have terminated the employees involved … Buffalo Wild Wings values an inclusive environment and has zero-tolerance for discrimination of any kind," Kudlata wrote.
The situation garnered such outrage that Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico made a statement to the local ABC station.