Wisconsin Restaurant Bans Unaccompanied Middle-Schoolers

Tom's Drive-In in Fox Cities, Wisconsin, currently has a sign in the window, saying that middle-school students are no longer permitted inside without their parents.

WFRV Local 5 News reports that the sign was a long time coming, after a harrowing list of apparent misdeeds by middle-schoolers. The store's manager says the mandate has been in place for awhile, after failed attempts to get the kids to stop their bad behavior, which included a long list of infractions, including carving into booths, drew genitalia with Sharpie markers, making large messes in the restaurant and bathroom, stealing soda, fighting with customers, yelled profanities at the restaurant district manager, and even tattooing "each other with pen ink and needles, leaving bloody napkins behind." Honestly, that sounds so heinous that those kids were lucky the cops weren't called. And what middle-schoolers have enough cash to go out to eat that frequently? We're also guessing that their tips were probably terrible.

Given the severe behavior by some Wisconsin middle-schoolers, frankly, we don't blame Tom's for putting the hammer down. Even though the sign apologizes to "those who didn't cause any of the incidents, we are sorry for the inconvenience." Because Tom's is a drive-in, kids can still pick up food through the drive-thru window. The policy is expected to be in place throughout the school year, and will then be revisited.