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… 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.

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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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