NORFOLK, Va. — One Norfolk gas station, the 7-Eleven on E. Brambleton Ave. and Park Ave., posted a rule limiting the number of Norfolk State students it serves at a time.
That brought out some questions on how a business can or can't discriminate against patrons.
Wednesday morning the sign read "ONLY 2 NSU STUDENTS ALLOWED IN STORE AT ONE GIVEN TIME."
"I notice it. It throws me off a little bit," said Ahzeil Freeman, an NSU student.
Students often visit that particular store. A few others spoke to News 3 about how they look at the sign.
"I know a lot of people don't like to walk alone so it's going to be three or four [students] walking in at a time so that's an inconvenience for [the store]. But I know a lot of times they're short-staffed so that's an inconvenience for [the store] trying to monitor three or four kids at a time. I see both sides," said Tyjuan Blizzard, an NSU student.
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Some had questions about enforcement.
"They can't really determine if we are NSU students unless we wear something like this [sweatshirt] or tell them that we are, so it typically wouldn't make sense to me. But I get it because they want to be aware of young teenagers coming as a group," said Freeman.
Additionally, some wanted to know why it singled out their school, a Historically Black University where roughly 83 percent of the student population is Black.
"What if I go to ODU? Can five ODU students be in there? What if I go to Virginia Wesleyan? What if I go to Tidewater Community College?" said Tim Anderson, attorney, Anderson Law.
Anderson explained to News 3 where businesses are supposed to draw the line. He said some discrimination is allowed but most businesses don't want to alienate customers.
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"You can discriminate against people for certain reasons. You can say things like 'You can't bring guns in here' or 'You have to wear a mask during a pandemic,' you can make people do things. And as long as it's uniformly applied that's one thing," said Anderson.
But stores don't necessarily have free reign.
"You can't tell people based on their gender, their race, their ethnicity, their sex what they can and cannot do in your business, that's 100% totally illegal," said Anderson.
News 3 stopped into the establishment Wednesday morning to learn why the sign was put up in the first place. Employees told us to come back in a few hours. Around 3 p.m. the owner told News 3 he had taken the sign down and declined to comment further.
NSU declined our request for comment. 7-Eleven's corporate office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
