News

Pizza Hut apologizes for its Riley, Tennessee unit's treatment of special needs group

December 19, 2019

A viral Facebook post that alleged employees at a Ripley, Tennessee Pizza Hut rush special needs students through their meals in order to better accommodate other customers referred to as "regular" diners prompted the Yum Brands chain to apologize this week to those involved, according to "People" magazine.

The teacher of the group of about 20 special needs student from Halls High School said while at the restaurant, where they had made reservations ahead of time, they were instructed to clean their own tables, use paper plates and finish their meal "because they (had) regular people coming in," the magazine reported.

A mother of one of students in the group posted the incident on Facebook, as well as her astonished reaction to the alleged treatment of the students. Heather Bensch recently shared a viral Facebook post accusing the pizza chain's Ripley location of discriminating against her daughter, McKaela, who visited the eatery along with about 20 other special needs students from Halls High School.

"Pizza Hut, please define to me who a 'regular' person is. No, better yet, please explain why my child and her classmates weren't at least given the 'regular' service that anyone else would receive?" wrote mother, Heather Bensch on Facebook, whose daughter, McKaela attended the party, though Heather Bensch did not. 

"The eye rolling and attitude began the moment that the first child and teacher walked through the door ... before the term 'regular' was even used by the waitresses. So, to say that this has all been blown out of proportion, or posted for any other purpose than to get justice for these kids, is not only inaccurate, but also offensive to those that were there."

A spokesman for Pizza Hut told the magazine the incident did not reflect the company's "standard of serving the community and providing every guest with excellent service," and that Pizza Hut had apologized to those involved. 

"Our local franchisee has been in contact with the school principal and superintendent to offer our apologies to the students and teachers and will be meeting with them this week," the Pizza Hut statement said. "Restaurant management will also be reinforcing our expectations with employees at the store to ensure that our standards of service are upheld going forward. We hope to welcome the class back into the restaurant soon."

The local school superintendent is investigating the incidents and told NBC News the regional manager for Pizza Hut was "very sorry" about its occurrence and "willing to make things right."