by Sarah Schauerte
A checklist to get sued:
1) Don’t train your employees about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
2) When you violate the ADA, make sure it’s by barring entry to your business to a veteran with an obvious disability.
3) Make sure the service dog you’re banning is an adorable yellow Labrador.
4) Do it in Texas, an extremely veteran-friendly state.
Check, check, check and check! Although Starbucks hasn’t gotten sued…yet. It has merely gotten some really, really bad press.
According to the different accounts of a story that was posted around the country earlier last week, Mr. Yancy Baer, a veteran of the Iraq war, tried to pop into a Starbucks on Memorial Drive in San Antonio. Mr. Baer had the lower half of his left leg amputated due to bone cancer, and he uses a yellow Labrador, Verbena, as his service dog. A Starbucks employee stopped him, and told him he couldn’t bring his dog into the store.
Mr. Baer is missing part of his left leg. I’d like to stress that again.
Embarrassed by the confrontation, which was in front of a store full of customers, Mr. Baer started shaking. He tried to explain to the sassy barista that Verbena is his service dog. When pressed, he described what Verbena does to assist him.
The response?
“Why can’t you do that for yourself?”
Adding to the terrible nature of this story is the reason Mr. Baer was in San Antonio – to give a speech on behalf of the service dog organization where he obtained Verbena – Canine Companions for Independence, a California-based non-profit organization that is the largest provider of assistance dogs in the United States.
In the end, another employee intervened and helped Mr. Baer, but I doubt he was able to enjoy his coffee. I’m willing to bet he took it to go, just to get the heck away from that barista.
The story didn’t end there for Starbucks. Somehow, it was repeated and picked up by the local television station, and then national channels. I personally found the story on a LinkedIn forum (U.S. Military Veterans Network). San Antonio is a very pro-veteran area, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t picketers outside that particular store. (News stories helpfully shared that it is a Starbucks on Memorial Drive).
Last summer, I blogged about a man who was denied entry to the Texas state legislature with his service dog, Piggy, a pug used to help him with his post-traumatic stress disorder. In that article, I discussed how important it is for businesses to know that when it comes to service dogs, under the ADA a private business is only allowed to ask two questions: 1) Is the animal required because of a disability? and 2) What work or task has the animal been trained to perform? An employee of a private business may not ask about the nature or extent of an individual’s disabilities, and he may not ask for documentation proving that the animal is in fact a service dog. If an employee crosses this line, the business risks a lawsuit.
In this instance, while Mr. Baer has publicly stated that he has “no hard feelings” towards Starbucks, the fact of the matter is that he had to have spoken up to someone, or the story never would have gotten press. And that press has surely led to a lot of customers boycotting that particular Starbucks. All because of one employee’s nasty faux pas.
Well, folks. One faux pas can cost you.
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