You Can Talk on a Cellphone at a Movie … BUT
… don’t laugh too loud at a funny movie. UPDATED AT THE BOTTOM
Disabled 7-year-old ejected from theater
Town of Wallkill – 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 – the manager brusquely told the family that Anthony had to leave, Pratti said.
Yeah but I have to put up with wise-cracking, unsupervised teenagers talking on cell-phones, making out, or talking loudly when I go to the movies – but some kid enjoying himself, like everyone around him, is booted out?
Someones priorities are fracked up big time on this one.
UPDATE 08/19/05
The movie theater where this happened has been hit hard with phone calls and such … read the whole update here.
[...]Loews corporate office has apologized to Pratti for what happened to Anthony, and says it’s taking steps to ensure it won’t happen again.
“We may not have exercised the best sensitivity in handling this situation,” said John McCauley, senior vice
president of marketing for Loews Cineplex Entertainment.McCauley said the company would offer more training to employees in how to better deal with touchy situations.
“We welcome the Pratti family back to our theaters, and we hope they’ll give us a second chance,” McCauley added.
Anthony’s story prompted a deluge of messages of solidarity, sympathy and support – and some generous offers.
– Cross posted via Trackback at Outside the Beltway
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1Redoubt
wrote on 18 August 2005 at 16:05
That’s my argument with society in a nutshell.
I say duct tape the healthy ones.
2Becca
wrote on 18 August 2005 at 17:07
I agree. I’d like to see a manager kick out the loud obnoxious guy who has a sarcastic comment for everything during a serious film. Give me a break. Give the poor kid a break and his family too. I hope they got their money back and then were able to get that manager in some serious trouble.
3Stacy
wrote on 18 August 2005 at 21:55
I don’t get this. Guess they threw him out because he was “challenged” and couldn’t fight back like say, a snot-nosed preteen with clueless parents?
How sad.
4Jay
wrote on 19 August 2005 at 9:53
Glad they are getting bombarded with phone calls. They deserve it.
5Stacy
wrote on 19 August 2005 at 12:34
Now if I could just get Loews cinemas to apologize for *not* tossing out the people who *should* be thrown out…all would be better in the world.