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Editor: 

I stopped at a downtown Berkeley restaurant around 12:30 p.m. for lunch. 

Although the restaurant attempted to control things by locking the front door and posting a sign that stated only 3 minors could be inside at a time, it was chaos. Kids were shouting and pushing. When one teenager attempted to exit the front door and couldn't open it, another shouted at him that he was a moron and he was stupid and pushed him out of the way to unlock the door. 

The first teenager, slow and lethargic with red half opened eyes, punched the other on the shoulder and was pushed out the door. Lots of pushing followed, including one teenager pushed into the back of an adult that was ordering. When he turned around and complained, the teen started talking: what are you looking at, punk, turn around, shut up. I was standing behind the teen, and I told him that the man was looking at someone who didn't know how to behave in a restaurant.  

He told me to shut my fat *** up. When the man stepped up to back me up, the teen was kicked out by the staff. The other teens that were left were talking about it: He called him a (derogatory name for a gay man) and the guy got mad, they explained to each other. 

It is clear that not all of the students at Berkeley High School have earned the right to go downtown unaccompanied.  

Also, it is very discouraging to see that in tolerant Berkeley, the worse insult the teenagers could think of was to call a man gay.  

Theresa Traynor 

Berkeley