More than 300 people have signed a petition in support of Lee Win, a food service worker at Lenoir Dining Hall and student at Chapel Hill High School, to “restore his freedom of expression.” The petition was formed after Win said his management asked him to not make jokes with students due to a complaint that was received.
During one of his shifts in late January, Win said a customer dropped a brussel sprout on the table of the vegan self-serve station.Win jokingly said aloud, "Hot people don’t make messes," which he said made the person the joke was directed toward laugh.
“But then a passerby, like a bystander, overheard it," Win said.
He said he remembered that the other customer said something along the lines of, "You might get fired for this, you might want to watch it." Five minutes later, Win said management pulled him aside to tell him about a complaint they had received.
“The exact words, I'm not even joking, were literally just, ‘You need to cut out the jokes,’" he said. “‘We just got a complaint, and you just need to smile and serve.’”
The same day, after hearing about the complaint from Win, first-year Paloma Fernandez said she started the petition to urge Win's managers to reconsider their decision and restore Win's "freedom to interact freely with students.” She said Win is an integral part of Lenoir because of the humor he brings to his interactions with students while working the ice cream bar, his main position.
“Students have assignments, exams, day-to-day stressors and just going to get some ice cream and having a nice laugh is always something that can contribute positively to your day,” Fernandez said.
She said she and her friends often eat dinner at Lenoir and each time one of her friends gets ice cream, they share what Win joked about with them.
A high school student, Win works part-time at Lenoir as an Aramark employee, the dining contractor for Carolina Dining Services. He said he balances school, his job and musical theater.
