Japanese McDonalds’ branch bans an entire middle school from entering the restaurant

Kids’ bad behavior gets the whole school barred from the fast food restaurant down the street.

The McDonald’s branch in the Tana neighborhood of the town of Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, is just a four-minute walk from Tana Middle School. That seems like it’d be a plus for the fast-food restaurant, what with the prospect of groups of kids coming in with their friends to grab a burger, soda, or sweet snack on their way home from school.

But it turns out that there was an extremely unpleasant side to the McDonald’s branch becoming an after-school hangout spot, and they’ve now banned each and every student from the middle school from entering the restaurant.

▼ Tana McDonald’s

This came to the general public’s attention earlier this month, when a tweet went viral showing a written notice posted inside the Tana McDonald’s which says:

To our customers,

Thank you always for choosing to visit our restaurant.

The inconsiderate behavior by middle school students has become a nuisance to other customers, and has created a concern for the physical safety of our workers.

Therefore, we are barring students from Sagamihara Tana Municipal Middle School from entering out our restaurant, the Sagamihara Tana McDonald’s branch.

We ask for your understanding and cooperation in ensuring a safe and secure experience for our customers.

▼ The 300-meter (984-foot) walk from the school to the McDonald’s branch

The notice offers no specific details as to what kind of behavior led to the decision, but in speaking to reporters about the situation, the school’s vice-principal has described the students’ actions as sawagu, meaning to be loud and boisterous. Multiple incidents in which students from the school caused disturbances took place during last school year (the Japanese school year ends/starts in spring), including ones in which teachers and police officers were called to rein in the unruly kids.

Though the tweet, which can be seen here, only recently went viral, the vice-principal first became aware of the restaurant’s mass banning of the school’s students “one or two months ago.” The Tana McDonald’s initiated the ban after discussing the situation with both the school and the police, says the chain’s public relations department, and the school has not made any public attempt to contest it. Ostensibly, the ban would be enforced by refusing entry to any individuals wearing the school’s uniform,

The exact number of students who were involved in the incidents is unknown, but realistically it couldn’t have been the case that every kid from Tana Middle School is a trouble-maker, and with the problems having occurred last school year, some of the ones who were bothering the staff and other customers most likely no longer attend the school. All the same, the ban is still in place, and Tana Middle School’s administrators have been having discussions with their students about showing proper courtesy when in a place of business and speaking with service industry employees. Hopefully all that will be enough for McDonald’s and Tana Middle School to patch things up in time for those kids to enjoy some of those okonomiyaki-style hamburgers while they’re still on the menu.

Source: Maido na News, J-cast News, Asahi Shimbun Digital
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