Girl, 13, Alleges Age Bias : Teen-Ager Sues Restaurant

Tracy Tellez said she was eating a cheeseburger last January when an employee of the McDonald’s restaurant in Valencia told her to leave.

The problem, Tracy said, was a restaurant policy that bars anyone under 16 from entering or staying in the restaurant after 9 p.m.

After the 13-year-old Valencia girl was told to leave a second time, she threw her food in the trash and walked out, she said.

“I was frustrated, and I thought it was wrong,” Tracy said. “I feel people should fight for what they believe in. They should fight for what is right.”

So her mother called an attorney and, on Tuesday, Tracy filed an age-discrimination lawsuit against the restaurant. The suit seeks a permanent injunction ordering the restaurant to allow Tracy and other young teen-agers to remain inside during business hours. It also seeks unspecified damages and attorneys’ fees.

“With this policy, I think McDonald’s has bitten off more than it can chew,” said Gloria R. Allred, Tracy’s lawyer.

The owner of the restaurant franchise could not be reached for comment. A restaurant employee referred questions to a McDonald’s Corp. spokesman in Los Angeles.

The spokesman, Gregory D. Hogan, said the policy--which was instituted by the management of the Valencia franchise--is aimed at curbing vandalism by teen-agers.

“There had been a serious and an ongoing problem with vandalism in the store, and customers were being made to feel uncomfortable--to feel unsafe--and this action apparently was taken to address that particular problem,” said Hogan, regional marketing manager.

A restaurant employee, who asked not to be identified, said the policy was begun earlier this year after Friday-night crowds tore chairs from their moorings and put graffiti on table-tops and on other parts of the restaurant.

That explanation doesn’t satisfy Tracy, who says she has never vandalized the McDonald’s. She goes there once a week, usually on Fridays after catching a movie, she said.

And she likes the food.

“It’s unfair for me to be punished because some other kids did that stuff,” she said.

After she and a 13-year-old girlfriend were ejected from the restaurant Jan. 22, they waited 40 minutes in the parking lot for a ride home with Tracy’s mother, Debra, Allred said.

The restaurant employee said the policy was rescinded about two weeks ago, but Allred said Debra Tellez was told Monday night that it was still in effect.

McDonald’s prides itself on being a family restaurant, Hogan said, but many operating policies are up to individual franchise owners. He said he didn’t know enough details to comment on the policy that sparked the lawsuit, but added: “What someone may claim to be discrimination may not really be discrimination.”

Allred asserts that the Valencia McDonald’s violated state civil-rights laws banning age discrimination. A hearing on the suit is scheduled April 15 in San Fernando Superior Court, she said.

“I do not think they have a right to exclude a person who is minding her own business,” Allred said. “She couldn’t even finish her sandwich.”