Huge Public Response for Waiter Who Stood Up for Special Needs Boy in Face of Insults

Aimee Herd : Jan 23, 2013
Phil Archer – NBC News, KSL.com

"He stood up for Milo just because it was the right thing to do."

(Houston, TX)—Michael Garcia, a waiter at Laurenzo's Restaurant in Houston, sees his regular customers as family. Maybe that's why he came to the defense of 5-year-old Milo Castillo, a boy with Down syndrome, and part of the Castillo family who visit Garcia and the restaurant on a regular basis.

According to Garcia, another diner was making rude comments about Milo, and insisted on being moved because "special needs children need to be special somewhere else."

That's when Garcia had had enough.

"My personal feelings took over and I told him, 'I'm not going to be able to serve you, sir,' " Garcia explained. "He said, 'If you're not going to be able to serve us, then we'll leave.' Then I told him, 'How could you say that? How could you say that about a beautiful 5-year-old angel?'"

The customer and his family left, but Milo's family had no idea of the incident until another server told them.

Word of Garcia's "heroic" response got out after that, and before long his Facebook page was inundated with affirming comments—the media soon followed.

Milo's mother, Kim told reporters, "I was really impressed that Michael would stand up for Milo. He really doesn't know us . . . He stood up for Milo just because it was the right thing to do."

Kim and her family were worried at first that Michael might lose his job, however, Laurenzo's Restaurant is reportedly standing behind him.