Fired Taco Bell employee says he had good reason for refusing to serve deaf man in Ohio

After an Ohio mother posted a video that shows a Taco Bell employee refusing to serve her deaf son at a drive-thru window, the employee was fired, WTOL reported.

“This is my Deaf son getting discriminated against in the Taco Bell drive thru ... He was trying to show them his order and they told him it was against company policy to take his order that way,” Becky Rosemont Burch wrote when she posted the video on Facebook on Wednesday. “Really?? Pretty sure the ADA would say otherwise. Uneducated people.”

The video has been viewed more than 1 million times as of Sunday afternoon.

A few days after the incident, though, the employee said he didn’t serve the customer for safety reasons — and not because of discrimination, WDTN reported.

The video posted to Facebook shows Burch’s son at the drive-thru window as he tried to show an employee the screen of his phone. Her son, Brandon Washburn, had typed his order on the phone, WTOL reported, as that’s how he usually orders food.

The employee handed him a note and said, “It’s against company policy. I can’t do it,” as he shook his head and then closed the window, the video shows.

The note also said it’s against policy to take food orders that way, WHIO reported. Still, Brandon Washburn and his girlfriend, who recorded the incident, didn’t leave the drive-thru, the station reported.

“I will call 911 if you don’t move,” the employee said in the video. “Because we can’t take it, and you’re also not allowed to record me.”

Police were called, ABC7 reported, and the officers offered to buy food for Brandon Washburn.

Following the incident, Taco Bell released this statement, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer:

“Taco Bell has a fundamental policy to respect all of our customers and employees, and we are committed to maintaining an environment free of discrimination or harassment. The franchise owner and operator of this location has investigated this situation and the team member no longer works for their organization. All team members at this restaurant are being retrained by the franchise owner on their policies.”

That employee, now identified by WDTN as Michael Brown, said he had good reason to refuse service to Brandon Washburn and that there’s more to the story than what the video shows. He did a video interview with the Ohio TV station.

“Michael (Brown) says he didn’t get any training on how to serve deaf customers and didn’t want to take the order through the window for safety reasons,” WDTN reported. “He says he tried to invite Brandon inside instead, but they never came in.”

“We tried our best to accommodate them, with them being deaf and none of us in there knowing sign language or having prior experience with it,” Brown said, according to the station.