# Child attacked at McDonald's



## tabs416 (Aug 22, 2005)

I run a site for local moms. One of the members posted a story the other day that absolutely stunned me. It has been six days, and she hasn't received a response - so we decided (with her permission) that we are going all out until this gets resolved.

Here is the gist of the story:

Her daughter (age 6) and her daughter's friend (a boy, age 7) were treated to McDonald's after a karate class on April 22 by the boy's mother. They were playing in the playspace area, and then three older, bigger kids (approximate age 11+) came in to play. The age limit on the playland is 12.

The older kids waited until the seven year old kid was up in the maze with no easy way to get out. They threw him up against the wall, and two of the kids held him down while the third one jumped up and down on him. The mom seems to think he was targeted b/c he was wearing the karate uniform from his class...but who knows.

The manager was immediately summoned, but she did nothing and refused to call the police. The mother (very shaken up) just left. The little boy who was attacked was not seriously hurt (thankfully!) and was very concerned that the bigger kids would go after the 6 year old girl.

They got home, contacted the corporate McDonald's office, and found out that the manager never wrote an incident report. They basically blew off the mothers, and are hoping they just drop the whole thing.

The supervisor called my friend back on April 26, and said he was sorry but that he didn't know what else to do.

As far as we know (and we have no reason to believe otherwise) nothing has been done for follow up, the manager has not been reprimanded, and nobody seems to be doing anything to handle this situation and to hopefully prevent it from happening again.

If you go to the McDonald's website (www.mcdonalds.com) - click on USA - contact us - (or just go here http://www.mcdonalds.com/app_controller.cu...stsat_form.html )
you can send an email form to McDonald's.

There is no reason this should have happened, and it is absolutely dispicable that nothing has been done to follow up on this incident.

I am hoping that the power of moms banding together will make McDonald's do something - anything - to help prevent this from happening again (hopefully by lowering the age limit for the playspace - or requiring and following through on the need for adult supervision) and to reprimand the manager that was on duty that day for not doing anything about it.

The McDonald's this incident happened at is 3601 High Point Road in Greensboro, NC - the corner of Holden Rd and High Point Rd. It happened on 4/22 at lunchtime.

I've been in contact with the local news, and would love any other ideas you all have to get this taken care of! I am just horrified it even happened, let alone to a friend's child!

I am not sure why the mom didn't call the police immediately. I am not sure where the older boy's parents were. I do know that this McDonald's isn't in the greatest neighborhood, although it is on the corner of two streets with heavy traffic.

I do not know what I would have done if it was me in the situation. My first instict would be to protect my child and remove my child from the situation. I can only imagine that the child was hysterical after being attacked, and the mother panicked after witnessing the incident and being helpless to reach her child.

---

As I wasn't present, I don't know why the police weren't called immediately or why the mother didn't call them herself - but if you go to a manager and the manager blows you off - would you stick around for more? Some of us would, and others say we would...but some would not. I don't know.

I don't want to make excuses or reasons - as I wasn't there - I am only trying to put myself in the mother's shoes, and I really don't know how I would have handled it. There are many things that should have been done (calling the police) but it didn't happen for whatever reason...and now in hindsight we want to do all we can to prevent it from happening again in the future.

To those of you who have taken the time to read this, and have helped in some small way to take action, thank you!


----------



## stirringleaf (Mar 16, 2002)

in a desparate moment before a test, i took ds to mcdonalds one day so i could study. i got to study for like an hour while he played, but then some little 2 year old fell and busted open her lip really bad and it bled all over the place. all over one of the slides and who knows where else. she simply came out of the play structure with a face full of blood. all the mom did was wipe her up and stick a pacifier in her mouth an d send her back to play. it took probably at least 15 minutes for a mc donalds worker to come clean up the blood. again the mother was doing nothing. not even walking over there with a napkin. my son of course gravitated towrd the bloody area , wanting to slide- walk- crawl in it. i had to get in a big scene with him trying to explain to him there was blood there and he couldnt play there and him yelling THATS NOT BLOOD MOMMY LET ME GO! and then i had to go tell the workers who apprently had heard about it already but no one was acting.

im sory but that how hepitits can be passed and its just unsanitary to let children play in blood. they should have had a worker come close down the structure while they waited to clean it , or something. as it was, the worker simply walked around with a spray bottle of bleach water and a rag , wiping. Blood is a biohazard. they should have some kind of plan for injuries that is better!

so i had to leave, and am permanantly grossed out by mc donalds not that i wasnt already, but i was kind of into letting him play there at first, becasue he was having so much fun. i like french fries anyway.

im sorry that happened to that little boy but from the 3 times i have played in those places they are just rife with neglect and children bullying and weirdness. i dont know why. its like wal-mart or something. inexplicably weird.


----------



## rmzbm (Jul 8, 2005)

1st post - OMG!! I don't know what else to say. How horrifying.














to that mama & kiddo!!

2nd post - Well, you just pushed me over the edge, good grief!! I have had alot of reservations about letting my kids play on these things...no more, not after reading your post. Who knows what's lurking in there. Absolutly discusting. Thanks for posting that, it's important!!







That said, Walmart IS "inexplicably weird" isn't it????


----------



## beansricerevolt (Jun 29, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *stirringleaf*

those places they are just rife with neglect and children bullying and weirdness. i dont know why. its like wal-mart or something. inexplicably weird.


----------



## Brisen (Apr 5, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *stirringleaf*
its just unsanitary to let children play in blood.

OK, first of all







, but







at this line, totally cracked me up. I mean, I never would have expected to hear this ever. McDonalds is just amazing, isn't it?

I will admit, we occasionally do the playplace -- mostly when the weather has been bad and the kids are going nuts. But we've left when there have been rowdy, unsupervised, usually older kids in there.


----------



## EVC (Jan 29, 2006)

One more reason to avoid McDonalds (like I didn't have enough reasons already). I wish the mom had called the police


----------



## Houdini (Jul 14, 2004)

Not a McD's story, but a playspace in Burger King. My friend's son was in the top of one of the tubes playing, had an accident (poop), and decided to "paint" the tube window with it. I went up in the tubes to get him, cleaned him and area up, and brought him out with me. He is deaf so we couldn't just tell him to stop b/c he wasn't looking at us. Anyway, we let the workers know what happened and they just nodded. They didn't close the area down to disinfect it or anything. The parents just let their kids keep playing knowing what had happened. We let them know a second time and they said it would be fine b/c we cleaned with wipes.


----------



## Dr.Worm (Nov 20, 2001)

I just e-mailed them and said how I won't send my child to their playplace anymore unless they do something. I used to work at one of those and that blood thing is disgusting. I cleaned up everything...even milkshakes asap because duh! Kids can fall. And too bad I wasn't working there because I would have climbed up that slide myself and pulled those little devils down myself.







:


----------



## Greensleeves (Aug 4, 2004)

Wow, that is shocking. Yes, the mother should have called the police, but if the manager didn't seem to be concerned and the mother still felt in danger, she probably just wanted to get the heck out of there. I'd definitely be in shock if my child had just been attacked. That was a very irresponsible manager. Heck it's just common decency to help out a mom trying to protect 2 young kids from being attacked. That should go without saying.

We have been to fast food play structures a couple times. Each time there were rowdy unsupervised older kids doing dangerous things around the smaller kids. Once there were young adults! Like 20+ years old running around in there, cursing and actually running into little kids and knocking them over.







: I said something to them and also went to the manager twice, and they were still in there when we gave up and left.

I think part of the problem is that these places are probably just a coninual headache for the workers. They don't have time to supervise what's going on and rely on responsible parents to make sure their kids aren't harming others.

Unfortunately, we have run into the problem of unsupervised, aggressive kids many times at public parks and other play structures. Sometimes I ask them to be careful of the smaller kids, but other times we just leave.


----------



## supernatural (Jul 26, 2005)

This is exactly why I will never again set food inside a restaurant play area with my kids. My kids and others I've seen have been bullied or bowled over by bigger kids, often kids that are too old to be there at all. I understand if you have 4 kids and one of them happens to be 12 why you would bring an older kid in a place like that, but it's your responsibility as a parent to make sure that 12 year old knows how to play safely around younger kids.

The last time we were at a playland (maybe Burger King, I don't remember), there was vomit in the crawling tubes. The whole place stunk of it and another mom (who was, like me, keeping her kids out of there) said they'd been there for 1 1/2 hours, it was there when they arrived, and nobody had been in to clean it up - despite reports from every parent that walked in. I demanded my money back, returned their food and told them I would never eat in a restaurant that didn't promptly clean up a biohazard (aren't big words fun?). Even without an accident or unlikely occurance, kids are running around those things with nasty runny noses, sticky hands and faces, and filthy dirty bodies (at least in my *******, white trash part of the world).

You can't trust most parents anymore to be responsible for their kids behavior, common courtesy, or maintaining sanitary play areas. We just get our Happy Meals and head to the park. At least that equipment is washed occasionally with rain, which is more than I can say for McDonalds.


----------



## afishwithabike (Jun 8, 2005)

Here's the info from a person who used to work in a McD's with a play place. We washed and sanitized the entire area every two hours. With one exception. The balls that the children jump into. Now THAT'S gross. That is where most of the gross things happen. Those only got washed and sanitized once a day. YUCK! I an NOT into letting the DC play in those things. I think most of those places have discontinued using the ball pits. Not cleaning the tubes and runs every two hours and NOT when an incident has been reported is completely irresponsible. I will be writing them regardign the attack. THere is a written protocol that they are supposed to follow and it was clearly ignored.


----------



## Girl In The Fire (Apr 6, 2005)

I knew someone that used to be a Asst manager at a MC D with a play land, and she used to go on and on about how gross it was. She said they never regularly cleaned in there. The ball pit would get vacuumed out with a special vacuum once a month and that was it.

My sister one time let my nephew play in one of the playlands and he wouldnt come down out of the tubes. She had to climb up to get him and she said it stank of urine through out


----------



## spero (Apr 22, 2003)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Houdini*
Not a McD's story, but a playspace in Burger King. My friend's son was in the top of one of the tubes playing, had an accident (poop), and decided to "paint" the tube window with it. I went up in the tubes to get him, cleaned him and area up, and brought him out with me. He is deaf so we couldn't just tell him to stop b/c he wasn't looking at us. Anyway, we let the workers know what happened and they just nodded. They didn't close the area down to disinfect it or anything. The parents just let their kids keep playing knowing what had happened. We let them know a second time and they said it would be fine b/c we cleaned with wipes.

We experienced something similar in a big-city McD's once. Our kids were playing in the elevated ball pit, and came out to report that there was a poopy dipe buried in there. We immediately contacted the staff (who had been extremely rude to us when we ordered), and they did NOTHING. We stayed to finish eating but wouldn't let the kids back into the play area - we were there another 20 minutes or so and NOTHING was done, nobody even went into the area to check the ball pit. We told every parent that came in, and no one else even bothered to complain.







:

If we hadn't been so stressed & exhausted at the time (I was less than a week post-partum and our youngest was in NICU with a collapsed lung), I would have made a HUGE stink with the health dept. That McD's does HUGE business (major teaching hospital & medical college just up the street - we saw several docs there w/their kids), and I would have loved to have shut the place down. The staff was awful to us.


----------



## Apwannabe (Feb 1, 2006)

iwon't let my kids near those things. One of my friends kids got E.Coli from playing in a ball pit at Discovery Zone. Do you know they are only required by law to empty those pits and clean the balls and mats every 6 months. Gross. He sued them and had the place shut down.


----------



## 1growingsprout (Nov 14, 2005)

YUCK... ds 5 last year at burgerking cut his toe and no one at BK would help me... we ended up in the ER having to get tetnus shots, xray, and the toe cleaned, wraped and a week of antibiotic... BK insurance was to pay the entire bill.. but im still getting stms which i prompty fax to the store, the district manager corporate and the insurance co.

we occasionally go to the playland but with the hot weather here (phoenix) the stench is overwhelming... actually chuck e cheese is cleaner then mc'ds or BK around here...

We had several 'hitting touching' incidents at mc'ds over the years... my kids have a NO TOUCHING rule, meaning they need to leave enough room between them and the other kids so slide, run, climb with out making contact...

the staff rarely partols the area and when they do they have yet to correct anyone...

dont you just hate the 'nintendo' games they have too...

good luck... fwiw ive gotten several 'free' tickets from mcdonalds after complaining about service etc..and once i filed a health dept complaint


----------



## CarrieMF (Mar 7, 2004)

The Mcdonalds here has a big sign up saying that it is an unsupervised area and that the parents are supposed to supervise their own kids. There is another one we stop in when we're travelling that has the same sign.

Were the parents of these 11yo's there? I am guessing with their behaviour if the parents were there they probably wouldn't have done anything.

I'm a confrontational person and would have been in those boys faces, then the managers(even if there is unsupservised area signs, it needs to be reported), the police would have been called and if nothing happened then I'd be talking to reporters.

How old is the manager? Here they have 12yo's working, "brilliant" idea of our gov't to solve the employee shortage problem. The managers are barely 18. the people specifically at mcdonald's don't seem to care about anything.


----------



## merrybee (May 18, 2002)

: shocking and disgsting!


----------



## Peppamint (Oct 19, 2002)

That's awful... the police should have been called (that's why my cell phone is handy).

I recently had to rescue my ds (who was just shy of three) from being bullied by older boys at a McD's playland (he is strong willed though and was roaring, literally, at them for bothering him







). I never did figure out who the boys belonged to, a bunch of people had flooded in at the same time. We left.







In retrospect, I wish I would have made a scene. Sadly there is little to do around here when the weather is bad and out of desperation sometimes we go to McD's playland just to get out.

When children are violent like that (jumping on a smaller child) I think something has to be done. Where were those boys' parents?









And yes- it's a problem at parks and such too!







:


----------



## JesiLynne (Aug 25, 2004)

, Can we please stay on track and post about what we can do to stop this etc...........

If you wanna talk about your personal experiences please start another thread in TAO.
Thank you


----------

