Poll: Autistic child asked to leave movie theater- do you agree?

[lacktheknack]

Put it this way: Should we be fair to the kid, or be fair to the dozens of people around him?

The answer: Both. Have a separate "Small Children" screen for people with disruptive kids and keep them out of the "quiet" theaters.

It's a bit of a double standard if we crucify people for having their cellphones out in a theater but then allow someone, regardless of circumstance, to be verbally disruptive, don't you think?

 

[Zetatrain]

Assuming the kid was being very disruptive I agree. I myself have an autistic brother, and back when he was younger there were a few occasions when we voluntarily left the theater because he was being to noisy. It sucks but as other have mentioned its unfair to ruin the movie for the other people especially when he's our responsibility. Luckily he doesn't do this kind of thing anymore.

 

[The Funslinger]

the cinema near me is an old fashioned picture house with an organist at the interval. Its a much nicer atmosphere than your average faceless odean/cineworld and its a lot cheaper. The interval is great because you can get up and exercise at half-time so your arse doesnt go numb

Unrelated, but I'm glad someone else recognises how good the interval is, and is annoyed at modern cinemas for getting rid of it.

Gotta de-numb that butt, and get another drink. What if I run out of coke and popcorn in the middle of the film, and I'm hankering for more? I don't wanna miss any of the movie I bought a ticket to watch.

Also, taking a break after one of two hours to get some exercise and let your eyes stop looking at the giant, bright screen in near pitch darkness seems the healthier way to do things.

OT: Disruptive is disruptive, and in a setting like that, disruptive people need to leave.

Edit: Also, without some kind of news source linked, I'd add it's kind of hard to draw up any conclusions, because all we have is a vague OP. That said, again, I imagine if he was being noisy and distracting to other customers, then yeah, it's totally fair to remove him. And I could assume he was, because if he was being quiet and unobtrusive, staff and other people wouldn't need to focus on him, and see that he was autistic, so I don't really see how they could have malevolently targeted him, which would probably be the implication of a 'sympathetic' article.

 

[Raggedstar]

The local autism society reserves theaters once every few weeks for children's movies. The lights are dimmed, sound is lower, ticket sales go to the charity, seats aren't packed (usually it's done a month or two after the movie comes out), and it's mostly just the other families that show up. Considering this has been going on for several years, people have been enjoying it. Families get to go out with their children to enjoy movies AND they don't disrupt others. Can't see anything wrong with that. Though they don't say "autistic kids can only see those showings". If an autistic kid is quiet or minimally disruptive (occasional soft talking) then they can see normal showings.

So ya, I think the theater was in the right. If an autistic kid is disruptive or over-stimulated, it's not a good idea to bring them. They are a guest in the theater and it's disrupting the enjoyment of other guests. Pretty open and shut, even as someone with an autistic kid in her family.

 

[Saltyk]

Obviously, the rules apply to everyone. Honestly, part of me feels giving special treatment to those with disabilities is wrong. It's one thing to make a building wheelchair accessible, it's another to let them cut in line and treat a disturbance (like the one mentioned in the OP) like it's okay. Disabled people are disabled. That's not an excuse, it's an explanation.

 

[shootthebandit]

Are these exclusively for autistic people or just autism freindly. These seem ideal for me. I hate being sat for ages without being able to move around. I hate the darkness in the cinema because it burns my retinas when I go out into the sunlight and the cinema is far too noisey. I can see why they would be distruptive

They're not exclusively for autistic people; sometimes they will be advertised as 'sensory friendly' to be more general. More information on them is available here [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism_friendly#Movie_cinema].

Im not autistic but I tend to find cinemas uncomfortable for all the reasons eamar described. It seems like a much more comfortable environment to watch a movie. Then again Im more of a sit at home and watch a movie type of guy anyway

 

[DementedSheep]

If he was actually being disruptive yes. It also acceptable to ask someone with a very young child who is making a fuss to leave. It's not really about "fault" it about disrupting other customers. Autism isn't a get of jail free card, they need to learn boundaries, acceptable behaviour and how to manage themselves even if it's difficult for them. While you should try to be accommodating to different people with different needs this doesn't extend to letting them do something that ruins the enjoyment of other customers and breaks rules.

 

[Ryallen]

I'm impressed, Escapist. The responses in this thread are surprisingly moderate and level headed. I came in here expecting people to be calling for the manager's head, as is often the case in these types of threads. What a nice surprise.

OT: I agree with pretty much everyone here. Just because he's autistic doesn't mean we can't remove him. After all, the other people there paid money that was just as good to be there. It's not fair to them to ruin the experience.

Are unreasonable and dickish responses to be expected here? From what I've seen on these forums, they are, more or less, moderate and articulate, and VERY civilized.

 

[spartan231490]

Of course it's ok. A business retains the right to refuse service to anyone period. Further, they wouldn't have exercised this right unless they got complaints and were afraid of losing costumers, which means the kid was being very disruptive without his caretaker being able to quiet him down.a

 

[lacktheknack]

I'm impressed, Escapist. The responses in this thread are surprisingly moderate and level headed. I came in here expecting people to be calling for the manager's head, as is often the case in these types of threads. What a nice surprise.

OT: I agree with pretty much everyone here. Just because he's autistic doesn't mean we can't remove him. After all, the other people there paid money that was just as good to be there. It's not fair to them to ruin the experience.

Are unreasonable and dickish responses to be expected here? From what I've seen on these forums, they are, more or less, moderate and articulate, and VERY civilized.

Whatever you do, don't read the comment threads to Critical Miss comic strips.

The Escapist can be a bit schizophrenic. One moment, everyone's in agreement and quietly articulating themselves, and the next moment you have them ripping each other's faces off. If you don't spend too much time here, you'll mostly see good threads like this one.

 

[Twintix]

That's fine to make them leave. The rules should apply to everyone, regardless of autism, etc, or not.
It's not fair on everyone else.
The parent should be able to handle them properly.

Yeah, this is pretty much my stance, too. Autistic or not, if you're ruining everyone else's movie experience, then you should be asked to leave. It's only reasonable.

 

[Ieyke]

There are some settings where being disruptive is not OK and the movie theater should be one of them. It's terribly unfortunate that this kid can't/won't stay quiet due to their disability but that's something that an adult caretaker should have known going in. You put the kid you're supposed to be caring for in a horrible position to fail.

However, with that said, it DOES somewhat depend on what they're seeing and when. The theaters by my house have special "Small Children" movie screenings where the entire point is that people with small children (a loud and disruptive group) can go see a movie without fear of getting dirty looks when their kid gets fussy.

This.

You have to know your limits, or whoever is in charge of knowing your limits needs to know your limits.
A person shouldn't go somewhere that they know they're going to ruin things for everyone around them. That's just being respectful to other people.
As said, there are certain days or times when movie theaters specifically embrace people/children with issues disturbing other people. Those would be the appropriate times to go.

It's not ideal, but these are businesses trying to provide a fantastic viewing experience for their customers, and customers who've gone out of their way to pay and go see a movie in theaters. Anyone and anything ruining that, short of an emergency where someone's having a heart attack or something, needs to be booted from the theater.

 

[EboMan7x]

Maybe the rest of the world enjoys a higher class of movie theater than me, but I've never seen an asshole talking on their cell phone asked to leave, so until that starts happening the autistic kid gets to stay.

 

[Ryallen]

I'm impressed, Escapist. The responses in this thread are surprisingly moderate and level headed. I came in here expecting people to be calling for the manager's head, as is often the case in these types of threads. What a nice surprise.

OT: I agree with pretty much everyone here. Just because he's autistic doesn't mean we can't remove him. After all, the other people there paid money that was just as good to be there. It's not fair to them to ruin the experience.

Are unreasonable and dickish responses to be expected here? From what I've seen on these forums, they are, more or less, moderate and articulate, and VERY civilized.

Whatever you do, don't read the comment threads to Critical Miss comic strips.

The Escapist can be a bit schizophrenic. One moment, everyone's in agreement and quietly articulating themselves, and the next moment you have them ripping each other's faces off. If you don't spend too much time here, you'll mostly see good threads like this one.

Do people not like Critical Miss? Or is it more of a problem with what the comic is usually saying? I like it, even though I don't agree with everything that the comic says.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Based solely on the information provided, which isn't much, I would agree with the decision to remove the child from the theatre. Being Autistic or having any other condition should not be license to disrupt the movie going experience of any one else. That's nothing against Autistic people either, everyone should have the right to enjoy the film they payed to see without disruptions; whether they be from Autistic children, crying children, or some douche yaking on their cell phone.

 

[Gennadios]

If the article that I found is the article that's being referenced, about the "heartbreaking" blog post in the "faith" section of a publication I've never heard of, it sounds more like a propaganda piece.

So the lady took her disabled son to a kids movie, IE a movie that was meant for the son and not her, then the son kept saying that he wants to go home.

My takeaway is that the author somehow thinks that the right of a disabled kid to watch a movie he's not interested in watching somehow trumps the rights of everyone else in the movie theater to enjoy it. Oh, and it was Christmas, brill.

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

Given what information we have, I definitely agree with what the theater did. It's not fair for the rest of the audience. If the child was asked to leave simply for being autistic, that would be wrong, but that's not the case.

I wish that it didn't have to be that way, but there's not really any alternative at that point. Some autistic people can't help it, but honestly you can't expect the rest of the people in the theater to accept such disruptions from anyone. This wasn't because the child was autistic; it's because he or she was being disruptive.

 

[Ieyke]

Maybe the rest of the world enjoys a higher class of movie theater than me, but I've never seen an asshole talking on their cell phone asked to leave, so until that starts happening the autistic kid gets to stay.

I have people thrown out all the time for talking or being on their phones. The Alamo Drafthouse doesn't put up with that shit.