Local Restaurant Faces Closure Amid Disruptions By High School Students

A family-owned business is on the brink of closing after disruptions continue to be caused by high school students.

For over a year, the owners of Nhinja Express have been dealing with a problem that they say is far more serious than just a decline in sales.

Groups of students from Westmoore High School have turned this once casual spot into a chaotic hangout. "I've been in the restaurant business for over 20 years, and I've never encountered anything like this," said Mary Nhin, co-owner of Nhinja Express.

Yesterday was Nhin's tipping point. She says violence and vandalism have driven away her regular customers, leaving the business struggling to survive. "We had four fights happening all at once. It was more like a riot," said Nhin. "We are right now desperate."

The business has contacted Oklahoma City Police and Moore Public Schools for help. "They say they cannot take responsibility for students because it's off campus," said Nhin.

Administrators say the students are troubled after watching the video, but they can't legally discipline them because it didn't happen on campus.

Nhinja is now turning to the community for help. They're asking parents of Westmoore students to talk to their kids about respecting local businesses.

The restaurant also encourages students to pre-order their meals online to avoid the lunchtime rush and pick them up curbside. "It's so hard to run a small business, especially with this making it even harder," said Nhin.

Moore Public Schools say they are having conversations with the parents of the students involved in the fight.

Their full statement:

"Moore Public Schools learned of an off-campus incident that occurred during the school day, and we are troubled by the video sent to us of students fighting. The vast majority of Westmoore and MPS students are outstanding both in their academics and behavior on and off campus.

However, events that happen during school hours, but off school property, are outside of the MPS realm of authority. Through our investigation, one of the students involved in a previous altercation was not even a current MPS student.

MPS is certainly sensitive to local businesses with regard to the behavior of some adolescents at establishments during the school day. Each semester, MPS high school students review expectations and policies for behavior. Annually, in an effort to be proactive, administrators make classroom visits to direct these conversations which, this year, occurred prior to the social media post about this incident.

Legally, to result in disciplinary action on the part of MPS, the behavior that occurred off-campus has to have a subsequent connection back to behavior in the school. Without this connection, the school has no legal authority to address the situation. While this may be frustrating for business owners, the most direct approach to address inappropriate behavior by any adult or minor patron, is to contact the police 

We encourage local businesses that experience any negative incident(s) involving a student to call the police immediately and consider pressing charges. 

Finally, the Westmoore administrative staff has addressed behavioral concerns occurring off campus with students and their parents when that behavior is directly connected back to the school. Concerning this incident, multiple students are under investigation. Their parents have been contacted and are actively involved in the conversation. 

Moore Public Schools remains dedicated to being good community partners and we appreciate local businesses serving our students and families; however, we can only take action that the law allows."