Kelsy Wallace, a 17-year-old hostess at a Chili’s in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is expressing her shock after she was attacked by at least 11 grown women when she informed them that they would not be able to sit together due to the coronavirus guidelines that the restaurant had in place, WLBT reports.
It all started on Sunday when the group of women came in requesting to sit together at one table.
“My general manager and my other managers tell us we cannot sit a table bigger than six because of the corona[virus]. We are supposed to separate them,” Wallace told the news station. “They got upset, so the first thing I did was go get my manager.”
However, the situation continued to escalate, leading to a verbal altercation between Wallace and the women, which then allegedly resulted in the women lashing out at the teenager.
“One girl come and she just hit me; we just started fighting. And all everybody who they was with just started hitting me, and the lady who pushed me first, she takes the Wet Floor sign, cocks back, and hits me with it in my eye,” the hostess explained.
Wallace went to the hospital and had to get stitches above her eye. She also sustained broken nails and had hair pulled from her scalp.
The Baton Rouge Police Department responded to the incident, however, by the time they arrived the women had already left.
“I couldn’t believe, like over two for 25s, and three for 10s, I got attacked,” Wallace said.
Wallace’s grandmother, Lorrain Byrd, expressed her outrage at what happened simply because the teen was trying to make some extra money.
“I couldn’t believe they would do or act like that, and then I mean, grown women, to fight a 17-year-old child at her job, who’s trying to work to get her graduation things together so she can go off to college,” Byrd said.
Chili’s released a statement noting that they are “disappointed,” and “do not tolerate violent behavior”.
“Following this unprovoked attack, we immediately provided medical attention to our Team Member and called the local police department who is looking into this situation,” the statement read. “We have made several attempts to contact the impacted Team Member and her family since the incident to provide support, but unfortunately have not received any response.”
Wallace for her part, says she has no plans to return to the Chili’s.