Olive Garden

Olive Garden

At five?

A local restaurant has drawn national attention over the controversial decision of one of its managers.

The manager was fired after reportedly meeting a customer's request to not be waited on by staff of color.

Now?

The hostess at the center?

And her attorneys are speaking exclusively to erran huber about their next steps.

He shares the latest developments tonight in a story you will only see on 44news.

"we need to get the issue out there.

Even though i'm getting a lot of backlash, it seems like.

I feel like i have to keep pushing through.

Keep getting my story heard, and keep talking about it.

No matter what.

No matter how many people tell me to shut up.

I'm going to keep talking."

An evansville teenager?

Who's unexpectedly found herself at the center of a racial controversy making national headlines.

Is fighting for change in the community.

I just wish evansville would really do better.

That's all i can say.

She also plans to take her battle to the courtroom?

Hiring danks and danks to represent her.

"so at this time, we are anticipating litigation.

There are multiple avenues to go down.

When there's an an employment discrimination claim, we could be involved with the eeoc, and ultimately in court.

Right now we're just investigating and monitoring things.

But we do expect to eventually file something."

Amira says?

It all began when a customer came in?

And started making demands?

Not just about the service she was getting.

"she asked for a white or no?

Colored server.

They give it to her.

She continues eating.

While she's dining, she pulls my other black host coworker aside.

And was like, 'i don't like it anymore,' with a plate of hal?eaten food.

'i don't like it anymore, it's soggy.

And the other host shouldn't be working here.

She's disrespectful.

She should go work at the strip club instead because she's not family friendly."

And she says the customer's comments about her continued.

"is she even from here?

Is she even american?

Is she black.

Insinuating that i don't speak english."

Donahue says?

Her manager not only accommodate d the customer's request for a server who was not a person of colo?but: "he's like, 'can you tell me what happened?

Just be more nice.

The customer is always right.'

Just keeps saying that."

In the aftermath?

She says her coworkers turned on her?

Writing negative comments after olive garden let the manager go.

"'this is why we don't hire children.'

'he didn't deserve this.'

'are you happy the manager got fired?''" and though she says senior members of olive garden's team apologized to her over what happene?she says during the internal questioning: "i just felt really uncomfortable as soon as i sat down.

I knew that it just wasn't right.

I had nobody to represent me.

Not my parent, not my lawyer."

The sixteen year old says it continues to take a huge emotional toll on her.

"it's a lot of weight on my shoulders.

Especially for me.

Someone going through school and also having a bunch of other stuff to deal with.

Especially having to go back to that workplace every single day.

I'm just trying to put on my big girl pants.

Like i say, put on my face in public, and cry in private."

Her attorneys say?

Their goal is to keep something like this from happening to anyone else.

"essentially what she had to deal with in this one instance was racial discrimination, and a hostile work environment.

Since that incident, olive garden, we believe, hasn't taken the necessary steps to correct that, or do anything to prevent it from happening again."

And while her lawyers commend her for how she's handled everythin?

"amira is extremely brave for coming forward.

She handled a very traumatizing situation with grace."

She says?

It hasn't come easy.

"this whole situation.

It's just so hard to wake up every day and know i have to power through this for just another second.

It's just so entirely hard.

I just can't explain it."

We reached out to olive garden to talk to them not only about their current standards and practices for trainin?

But also reaction to these new developments .

They declined to comment any further past their previous written statement?

Which reads 'we have zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind, and the manager involved no longer works for our company.'

We will continue to keep you updated on developments as they continue.

Erran huber 44news.

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