Saturday, April 2, 2005

ROSA PARKS OF THE GOLDEN ARCHES: Via loyal reader db, we learn this morning that the immortal Hyde Park McDonalds has found itself in the news again (or, if you don't have a Trib pw, here too:
The owner of a McDonald's restaurant in the Hyde Park neighborhood scrapped a policy Thursday that required Kenwood Academy High School students to sit in a separate area from other customers, after a student protesting the policy was handcuffed by Chicago police and taken back to campus.

Catherine Smith, 15, was two bites into her Chicken Selects Wednesday when a security guard ordered her and her friends to move because they were sitting in a "non-student" area, she said.

"I paid for the food just like everyone else and I'm not leaving," Smith responded.

The security guard then called Chicago police. Undercover officers approached Smith and said she was trespassing and resisting arrest. They handcuffed the honor student, led her out of the popular student hangout, placed her in a squad car and took her back to campus, Smith said.

As a lawprof notes, however, the McDonald's may have been entirely in the constitutional clear on this one. Thoughts?

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