Special Ed’s Brewery Getting Complaints About Their Name

On the Facebook page for Special Ed’s Brewery, a new business slated to open soon in Galt, Calif., the business description comes with a warning: "We do everything tongue in cheek, so don’t take offense to anything we do or say."

This week, following a social media uproar over the business name and related slogans — including beer bottle labels that read " ‘tard tested, ‘tard approved" — no one seems to be laughing.

People who were initially excited that the first small brewery might be opening in Galt soon grew angry once details of the business became clear. One of the brewery’s slogans reads, "Ride the short bus to special beer," in seeming reference to buses transporting developmentally disabled children. Special Ed’s also has a proposed beer "Back of the Bus Brown Ale," which appears to refer to the Jim Crow-era policy that helped launch the civil rights movement.

[Editor’s Note] The Facebook page has been removed.

‘My husband is getting death threats on his phone,” co-owner Cheryl Mason said. “The situation is not funny at all.’”