Hungry and shouting crowds of teenagers swarm in front of the Sendero Pkwy In-N-Out. Many complain it is mob-like and disrespectful and criticize their reckless behavior. 

According to several students, after the usual Friday night football games SJHHS students were seen banging and tugging on the handles.

“It definitely resembled that of a zoo. The menaces were banging on the windows, they were pushing and shoving… If I was a worker I would quit,” said Hailey Palmer, a student who witnessed the mob on Friday.

Inappropriate behavior isn’t unusual for the workers at our local In-N-Out.

“The craziest things happen, you wouldn’t even expect it… Someone flushed a bottle of some random substance and we had to replace a whole new toilet. We’ve also had kids who just take chairs and soda dispensers on random days,” said In-N-Out staff manager Judah who wished to withhold their last name from publication. 

Having been the staff manager of this In-N-Out for 5 years, Judah has seen his fair share of chaos regarding kids’ blatant disregard for staff and authority.

“We prepare beforehand and schedule for as many people as we need. We love the business and extra sales, but we just really would prefer if people would line up in a single file line.”

In-N-Out staff believe that if all of the students were to line up single-handedly, orders could progress much quicker and result in fewer complaints from customers.

However, it isn’t as easy as it sounds, especially for over 300 young teenagers.

“We have to lock the doors for a while. We try to gather them out front to hang out when they’re done ordering,” said Judah.

When students overflow In-N-Out’s 85-person limit, the staff has to lock the doors and wait until the crowding dies down. Though most of the kids abide by the rules, some show blatant incivility to staff and customers. Sometimes, this results in measures that can be easily avoided, like calling the police.

“Last Friday we had to call the cops… They never showed up, but the crowd eventually died down,” said Judah.

Staff at In-N-Out call the police as a way to ward off and scare the kids. It’s a useful tactic; all of the kids left eventually.

Spending time with friends while getting food is a good way for kids to socialize and have fun. 

Nonetheless, crowding will always be an issue due to the large number of students. Many customers have complaints about this, but there is not much that staff can do except try to calm the storm.

“We get a lot of complaints that we don’t know how to control the crowd. The thing is, we’re an In-N-Out Burger, of course, we don’t know how to crowd control,” said Judah.

It is expected that students will respect authority, but that is not always the case. A few misbehaving children should not ruin the memorable experience of a post-game get-together.