Gold Coast McDonald's bans kids wearing school uniform

A Gold Coast McDonald’s has banned schoolkids from being served during school hours as part of a crackdown on students skipping school.

McDonald’s Elanora has posted a sign saying, "any student in school uniform will not be served between the hours of 9am-3pm", according to News Corp.

The sign says the policy was at the request of schools.

Radio 4BC presenter Ben Davis said he supported the restaurant’s stance but questioned how the students were being allowed out of the school grounds in the first place.

“I see now, driving around during school hours a lot of kids from state schools, private schools not in school,” he told Sunrise.

“They walk around in packs. I don’t know what they’re doing outside of school grounds.

“Call me old-fashioned but when I was at school, when we walked outside of school grounds during school hours, you’d get detention, you’d get called back in to school.”

Schools in the Elanora and Palm Beach areas have student attendance rates reportedly two per cent lower than the state average.

But News Corp local editor-in-chief Kathy Lipari said it wasn’t McDonald’s job to crackdown on kids skipping class and suggested students would just go somewhere else.

“Why has it become McDonald’s issue to stop kids from going into their restaurant?” she asked the panel.

Sunrise host Samantha Armytage suggested it was because most students in the area were going to this particular McDonald’s.

“They’ll just go somewhere else or take their uniform off,” Ms Lipari replied.

An Education Department spokesman said it was a legal responsibility for all parents to send their kids to school.

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