At any rate, they claim to be a family restaurant......
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/city/000606/4227976.html
Schoolboys suspended for lunching at Hooters
Eating at restaurant 'injurious to moral tone' of Cornwall high school
Kelly Egan
The Ottawa Citizen
Wayne Cuddington, The Ottawa Citizen / Laurie Quinn, 20, a server at the Hooters restaurant on St. Laurent Boulevard, often serves families and youngsters. The eatery is mystified at the reaction of school officials to students lunching there.
Bruno Schlumberger, The Ottawa Citizen / Joey McLennan is appealing a suspension his father calls 'a joke.'
They were high school boys from Cornwall, on the verge of manhood, and they came to see the sights of the big capital city: the dinosaur exhibits, the science displays, the heritage buildings, Hooters.
What an education they got.
Nine students from St. Lawrence High School were suspended for two days last week after they decided to spend their free lunch hour at the new Hooters Restaurant on St. Laurent Boulevard.
According to a letter sent home with students, the boys, Grade 9 and 10 students aged 14 and 15, were suspended for conduct "injurious to the moral tone of the school."
It further said the boys showed "persistent opposition" to authority.
The restaurant, part of an international chain famous for its fleshy female servers, is only a short walk from the Canada Science and Technology Museum, the group's afternoon destination.
One of the suspended students, Joey McLennan, 14, said he and a group of friends decided to go to Hooters because they've been to other fast-food outlets like McDonald's and Burger King "hundreds of times."
"We didn't really know what to expect. Someone just said, 'Do you want to go?' We've been to the other restaurants a hundred times. We wanted to go somewhere different."
Joey said the students sat at two tables and ate poutine and $6 hamburgers. He didn't know he was in trouble until the next day, when his friend told him he was about to be suspended.
He said he was handed a letter from principal Katherine Burke and had a short conversation with her. "She said (Hooters) was a strip joint and that I shouldn't be going there. We tried to tell her it wasn't."
The principal could not be reached for comment yesterday.
(To confuse matters, in Cornwall's Northway Hotel on Pitt Street, there is a strip club and a separate sports bar called "Hooterz" in the same building. It has no connection to the Hooters chain.)
"I think it's a joke," said James McLennan, Joey's father. "He didn't even really know what Hooters was."
The boy's mother, Teresa McLennan, has decided to appeal the suspension. A review hearing before a three-trustee panel has been scheduled for today.
Mrs. McLennan said she's concerned on two fronts: the boys were not supervised by an adult in a busy urban area, and the misconception about what type of restaurant Hooters is.
She was told by a school official that Hooters was considered on par with a strip club. However, staff at the restaurant describe it as a family eatery that serves people of all ages.
"Isn't it ridiculous?" asked Terry Fraser, the manager of the 200-seat restaurant, which just opened in April.
"We are not a topless bar. We serve lots of women and families all the time."
There are some 10 Hooters restaurants in Canada, including two in the Ottawa area. The clientele is predominantly male and the chain, whose servers wear shorts and tank tops, has been criticized for its portrayal of women.
Last Monday, there were two busloads of students who paid $15 each for a day-long trip to the Museum of Nature on McLeod Street and the east-end science museum.
The boys noticed the Hooters on the way to the first museum.
There is some discrepancy about whether they were directed by a teacher to choose between two or three fast-food restaurants and specifically told not to eat at Hooters.
"So what if they wear halter tops and shorts?" asked Mrs. McLennan. "You can see that every day on the street or at the beach. He didn't do anything wrong."
The school has declined to comment on the suspensions.
However, trustee Joe Gunn, who will sit on the appeal committee, said he doesn't find anything objectionable about Hooters, which he had occasion to dine at in Florida.
"I can find things more objectionable in the schoolyard." He said the Internet has much more sexually explicit material at the touch of a finger.
On his Florida visit, he said he was struck by the number of children under the age of 10 who were in the premises with their parents.
"For the life of me, I can't understand why they would be told not to go to a certain restaurant. There's a thing in this world called democracy."
Mr. Gunn, a trustee for 24 years, said if the students were specifically asked not to go to Hooters -- and disobeyed -- then they are likely deserving of discipline.
"But where was the supervision?" asked Mr. Gunn, who said he's had several calls about the issue already. "I had one parent call me and say, 'Fire the teachers.' "
John Beveridge, the assistant to the director of education for the Upper Canada District School Board, said he was unable to talk about the specifics of the case.
It is possible, he said, that the students were told to confine themselves to three or four supervised restaurants near the museum but failed to do so. "I don't know any of the facts, yet."
Four of the nine suspension appeals are to be heard today.
"You can be on a field trip, but it wouldn't happen that students would be told you have a free two hours, go wherever you want, do whatever you want, you know, just disappear."
The students are still in the care of teachers even when they are away from the school, said Mr. Beveridge, and still subject to the same rules, such as an alcohol prohibition.
Joey, meanwhile, has returned to school, where his mother says he was greeted with "high-fives" from his friends.
"I want to make sure they're protecting the children," says Mrs. McLennan. "They shouldn't have been allowed to go there on their own."
------------------
Admit Nothing,
Deny Everything,
Make Counter Accusations
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/city/000606/4227976.html
Schoolboys suspended for lunching at Hooters
Eating at restaurant 'injurious to moral tone' of Cornwall high school
Kelly Egan
The Ottawa Citizen
Wayne Cuddington, The Ottawa Citizen / Laurie Quinn, 20, a server at the Hooters restaurant on St. Laurent Boulevard, often serves families and youngsters. The eatery is mystified at the reaction of school officials to students lunching there.
Bruno Schlumberger, The Ottawa Citizen / Joey McLennan is appealing a suspension his father calls 'a joke.'
They were high school boys from Cornwall, on the verge of manhood, and they came to see the sights of the big capital city: the dinosaur exhibits, the science displays, the heritage buildings, Hooters.
What an education they got.
Nine students from St. Lawrence High School were suspended for two days last week after they decided to spend their free lunch hour at the new Hooters Restaurant on St. Laurent Boulevard.
According to a letter sent home with students, the boys, Grade 9 and 10 students aged 14 and 15, were suspended for conduct "injurious to the moral tone of the school."
It further said the boys showed "persistent opposition" to authority.
The restaurant, part of an international chain famous for its fleshy female servers, is only a short walk from the Canada Science and Technology Museum, the group's afternoon destination.
One of the suspended students, Joey McLennan, 14, said he and a group of friends decided to go to Hooters because they've been to other fast-food outlets like McDonald's and Burger King "hundreds of times."
"We didn't really know what to expect. Someone just said, 'Do you want to go?' We've been to the other restaurants a hundred times. We wanted to go somewhere different."
Joey said the students sat at two tables and ate poutine and $6 hamburgers. He didn't know he was in trouble until the next day, when his friend told him he was about to be suspended.
He said he was handed a letter from principal Katherine Burke and had a short conversation with her. "She said (Hooters) was a strip joint and that I shouldn't be going there. We tried to tell her it wasn't."
The principal could not be reached for comment yesterday.
(To confuse matters, in Cornwall's Northway Hotel on Pitt Street, there is a strip club and a separate sports bar called "Hooterz" in the same building. It has no connection to the Hooters chain.)
"I think it's a joke," said James McLennan, Joey's father. "He didn't even really know what Hooters was."
The boy's mother, Teresa McLennan, has decided to appeal the suspension. A review hearing before a three-trustee panel has been scheduled for today.
Mrs. McLennan said she's concerned on two fronts: the boys were not supervised by an adult in a busy urban area, and the misconception about what type of restaurant Hooters is.
She was told by a school official that Hooters was considered on par with a strip club. However, staff at the restaurant describe it as a family eatery that serves people of all ages.
"Isn't it ridiculous?" asked Terry Fraser, the manager of the 200-seat restaurant, which just opened in April.
"We are not a topless bar. We serve lots of women and families all the time."
There are some 10 Hooters restaurants in Canada, including two in the Ottawa area. The clientele is predominantly male and the chain, whose servers wear shorts and tank tops, has been criticized for its portrayal of women.
Last Monday, there were two busloads of students who paid $15 each for a day-long trip to the Museum of Nature on McLeod Street and the east-end science museum.
The boys noticed the Hooters on the way to the first museum.
There is some discrepancy about whether they were directed by a teacher to choose between two or three fast-food restaurants and specifically told not to eat at Hooters.
"So what if they wear halter tops and shorts?" asked Mrs. McLennan. "You can see that every day on the street or at the beach. He didn't do anything wrong."
The school has declined to comment on the suspensions.
However, trustee Joe Gunn, who will sit on the appeal committee, said he doesn't find anything objectionable about Hooters, which he had occasion to dine at in Florida.
"I can find things more objectionable in the schoolyard." He said the Internet has much more sexually explicit material at the touch of a finger.
On his Florida visit, he said he was struck by the number of children under the age of 10 who were in the premises with their parents.
"For the life of me, I can't understand why they would be told not to go to a certain restaurant. There's a thing in this world called democracy."
Mr. Gunn, a trustee for 24 years, said if the students were specifically asked not to go to Hooters -- and disobeyed -- then they are likely deserving of discipline.
"But where was the supervision?" asked Mr. Gunn, who said he's had several calls about the issue already. "I had one parent call me and say, 'Fire the teachers.' "
John Beveridge, the assistant to the director of education for the Upper Canada District School Board, said he was unable to talk about the specifics of the case.
It is possible, he said, that the students were told to confine themselves to three or four supervised restaurants near the museum but failed to do so. "I don't know any of the facts, yet."
Four of the nine suspension appeals are to be heard today.
"You can be on a field trip, but it wouldn't happen that students would be told you have a free two hours, go wherever you want, do whatever you want, you know, just disappear."
The students are still in the care of teachers even when they are away from the school, said Mr. Beveridge, and still subject to the same rules, such as an alcohol prohibition.
Joey, meanwhile, has returned to school, where his mother says he was greeted with "high-fives" from his friends.
"I want to make sure they're protecting the children," says Mrs. McLennan. "They shouldn't have been allowed to go there on their own."
------------------
Admit Nothing,
Deny Everything,
Make Counter Accusations
Next you'll hear kids suspended from school for watching HBO.
. I have a picture of Principal Burke's husband in mind, something tells me he looks like Clinton, and he's almost certainly getting it elsewhere. 