Marina students protest teen treatment at bagel shop

Angelique Flores

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Eleven students from Marina High School walked along

Edinger Avenue carrying signs Saturday morning in protest of a Huntington

Beach bagel shop they claim discriminates against kids.

The teens are accusing owner Jim Cleary of JT’s Bagels, across the street

from Marina High, of refusing service to kids in favor of adult

customers.

Cleary denies the claim.

“That’s not true,” Cleary said, upset at the protesters. “I can’t do

anymore than I’m doing to serve the public.”

One of the protesters, Brad Cordeiro, said the owner went into the back

of the shop after the boys told him they were next in line.

“He didn’t help me until an adult came,” said Brad, 17.

Brad said his friends have had similar experiences. In one case, Brad

claims, three of his friends went to the shop. Two placed orders, and

then the trio sat down. The owner asked the boy who hadn’t ordered

anything to leave, even though all three were sitting at the same table,

Brad said.

A few months later, Adam Miller, 17, walked into the shop and lined up

behind about 10 kids with adults at the end. He said the owner skipped

over the the young customers and took the adults’ orders.

Upset, Adam said he confronted Cleary, pointing out that he was

discriminating.”I didn’t want to do this because I know it’s his

livelihood,” Adam said.

Adam sent a letter to Cleary and said he tried to talk with him last

week.

“I wanted to solve this before we protest,” Adam said. “He said, ‘You

can’t tell me how to run my business,’ threatened to arrest me and kicked

me out of the store.”

Cleary doesn’t deny the verbal squabble with Adam.

“When some kid tells you that you’re discriminating against him, it’s

hard to put up with that,” Cleary said.

Cleary said the students just don’t understand how a business works. The

9-year-old shop often becomes packed with customers, he said.

“Half are customers, half just want to hang out.... I’ve got customers

that want to sit down.... If they’re sitting here and not buying

anything, I tell them these tables are for customers,” Cleary said.

The response he gets is anger and foul language, he said.

“It’s not the easiest thing in the world to wait on the public,” Cleary

said.

Cleary also denies skipping over students in line.

“Someone might have missed their turn in line, and, hey, it happens. It’s

impossible to tell who’s turn it is, it gets so crowded,” Cleary said.

But at least one other customer said she has seen the kids being

obviously skipped over.

Bernice Ibarra, who works next door at Sav-On Drugs, saw a line of kids

get passed over for the adults at the end.

“We don’t do that here. It’s bad that they do it next door,” she said.

“It’s very, very rude. Business is business no matter what age, as long

as you pay for whatever you’re buying.”

Potential patrons such as Brad and Ibarra have not returned to the shop

after seeing these incidents.Not everyone has the same discord with

Cleary. He knows many of his regular adult customers by name.

“We come in all the time, and I’ve never seen discrimination,” said

Gloria Mayer, who comes a few times a week to the shop.

Mayer said she’s been skipped over a few times before when the shop is

crowded and the line is unclear.

“He hires these kids and helps with fund-raisers for the school,” Mayer

said.

The students are planning another protest and said they hope to continue

the efforts until they see that the students are treated fairly.