← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Kevin_O'Keeffe
Thread ID: 19724 | Posts: 6 | Started: 2005-08-19
2005-08-19 07:38 | User Profile
[url=http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/08/18/laughter.htm]link[/url]
August 18, 2005
Disabled 7-year-old ejected from theater
By Dave Richardson Times Herald-Record [email]drichardson@th-record.com[/email]
Town of Wallkill ââ¬â If you're a 7-year-old kid with cerebral palsy and autism, you have to take your laughs anywhere you can get them. Just don't have too much fun at the local movie theater, or you might get thrown out. That's what happened to young Anthony Pratti this week. To say his parents are upset about it would be an understatement. Anthony, who uses a wheelchair, was with his parents, his sister and his grandmother at the Loews Cineplex theaters in the Galleria at Crystal Run Sunday, watching a 1:15 p.m. matinee of the G-rated film "March of the Penguins." The family sat in the wheelchair section provided by the theater. Anthony was having a good time, said his mom, Gina Pratti. "He was laughing, but he really wasn't much louder than any of the other kids," she said. About 15 minutes into the film, one of the theater's managers approached the family, she said. "He said our son was laughing too loud," Pratti said. "My husband told him Anthony didn't understand, that he was disabled, but that we'd try to quiet him down." Not good enough, apparently ââ¬â the manager brusquely told the family that Anthony had to leave, Pratti said. Outraged, the family followed the manager to the lobby, where they were told they all didn't have to leave ââ¬â just Anthony, Pratti said. Pratti was dumbfounded. "I said to him, what are we supposed to do, wheel him outside and leave him there?" she said. The manager refunded the family's ticket purchase and sent them on their way, she said. Location of the theater Click on one of the markers to show additional information. Use the (+) and (-) buttons to zoom in and out. Hold the mouse button and drag the map to move throughout the map. Click here if the map does not display. Pratti and her husband have spent the past three days making phone calls and sending e-mails, trying to get someone ââ¬â anyone ââ¬â from Loews to give them an explanation. "Not one person from Loews has called me back," Pratti said. When contacted by the Times Herald-Record yesterday, a representative of Loews corporate headquarters said the company is concerned by Pratti's story, and is looking into Sunday's events. The company says it will issue a statement today. Pratti has spoken with attorneys about the incident, but isn't sure she wants to pursue any legal action. Meanwhile, Pratti says she hopes Loews will do whatever it takes to make amends. "This was only the third movie Anthony had ever seen, and now we're afraid to go back because they might throw us out again," Pratti said. Explanations aside, Pratti has a simple message for the manager she says publicly humiliated her son: "Shame on you."
2005-08-19 17:28 | User Profile
I see no reason to doubt the kid was being very disruptive. Are we suppose to excuse that, or punish the theater, just because the kid is handicapped?
In the newest theater here (or, the only one I've been to in the last number of years), the wheelchair location is in the best location, in the middle of where most people would choose to sin. If this is the case with this kid, the parents should maybe have considered putting the boy in a seat away from other people, and going to the theater at a time they know there won't be many people there. But, instead, probably motivated by the culture of victimhood, and Special Rights for everyone not white, straight, male, Christian, and non-crippled, the parents decided to try to cause trouble for the theater.
Probably.
2005-08-19 17:55 | User Profile
I'm leaning toward HH's position on this.
Though I doubt the parents meant for their kid to be disruptive, they should really understand that they and their kid aren't the only ones in the theater. It's not "all about them" just because their kid is handicapped. They certainly have no right to pursue legal action (at least not a moral one -- I don't trust the law to make sense, though). If you're disruptive in a theater, the management has a right to ask you to leave so that other paying customers can enjoy themselves.
I feel bad about the kid's condition, but he's not a victim of the theater. It's not going to kill him to wait for the DVD.
2005-08-19 19:33 | User Profile
Will the manager also eject the disruptive negroids who always talk too loud as they typically do at movie theaters? Or shout, or jump on the seats, or talk back at the screen, or start fights?
Probably not.
2005-08-19 20:58 | User Profile
[QUOTE=xmetalhead]Will the manager also eject the disruptive negroids who always talk too loud as they typically do at movie theaters? Or shout, or jump on the seats, or talk back at the screen, or start fights?
Probably not.[/QUOTE]
Touche.
The theater should eject disruptive people. But, in the case of blacks, that's a very dangerous, for many reasons, thing to do. From the article, it's pretty clear that this family isn't black, because the race card wasn't played and they didn't riot.
2005-08-22 06:46 | User Profile
[QUOTE]
In the newest theater here (or, the only one I've been to in the last number of years), the wheelchair location is in the best location, in the middle of where most people would choose to sin
[/QUOTE]Do you mean to say sit, or did you truly mean SIN? I only ask, because I know how some people act in a movie theater. lol
7 year old kids in a movie theater can be annoying as hell, no matter if they are handicapped or not. And this does happen and probably should more often. The only reason there is even an article about this story is because, as someone said the kid is "special." Same type of reaction if this would have been some loud nigger, that would cry racism,etc. Very annoying.:disgust: