Interested in seeing people's take on this - Page 3

7960 · 01-07-2007, 09:23 AM

Originally Posted by motivez

The only real argument I can see against kicking kids out is that as a business owner you have a responsibility for the safety of your customers while they're in your place of business, but that's really things like fire hazards, defective products, etc.. Not sure how it applies to the safety of children in a movie theater, or if it even does.

"Legal" or not, it'd be a horrible idea to force a 12 year old from the building. If that 12 year old tries to walk home and something happens the theater and whoever kicked the kid out i is fucked. The headline "Theater kids kid out, kidnapped" would involve (at a minimum) dozens of civil suits.

kinggovernor · 01-07-2007, 11:41 AM

Originally Posted by 7960

"Legal" or not, it'd be a horrible idea to force a 12 year old from the building. If that 12 year old tries to walk home and something happens the theater and whoever kicked the kid out i is fucked. The headline "Theater kids kid out, kidnapped" would involve (at a minimum) dozens of civil suits.

calling the police ftw let them figure it out

hsmith · 01-07-2007, 11:49 AM

You were right.

6SpeedTA95 · 01-07-2007, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by 7960

"Legal" or not, it'd be a horrible idea to force a 12 year old from the building. If that 12 year old tries to walk home and something happens the theater and whoever kicked the kid out i is fucked. The headline "Theater kids kid out, kidnapped" would involve (at a minimum) dozens of civil suits.

You're right it would but theaters are not babysitters, if your kids are not well behaved I'd think the court might side with the theater unless we're in cali, mass or some other bizzaro state.

Diamond Cross · 01-07-2007, 02:57 PM

Jae Jae did do the right thing, but the legality of it may be something else. In the legal sense, if sued Jae Jae could lose. I'd suggest consulting with a lawyer just to be on the safe side so you can have a preemptive strike.

7960 · 01-07-2007, 03:17 PM

Originally Posted by 6SpeedTA95

You're right it would but theaters are not babysitters, ...

They're not. But they actually do take some responsibility when they allow a 12 year old to enter without a parent. If they kick that kid out and something happens, they're going to get sued and even if they win (and I'm not sure they'd win in civil court) they're going to spend a shitload of money defending themselves.

Originally Posted by kinggovernor

calling the police ftw let them figure it out

this is by far the safest thing... call the cops, tell them a parent abandoned a child at the theater, let the cops figure out how to handle the situation.

7960 · 01-07-2007, 03:18 PM

Originally Posted by Diamond Cross

Jae Jae did do the right thing, but the legality of it may be something else. In the legal sense, if sued Jae Jae could lose. I'd suggest consulting with a lawyer just to be on the safe side so you can have a preemptive strike.

If sued for what? Just for telling kids they couldn't sit together? Or for booting the mom? .... he coudl lose if he's sued for what??

JaJae · 01-07-2007, 03:31 PM

Originally Posted by 7960

They're not. But they actually do take some responsibility when they allow a 12 year old to enter without a parent. If they kick that kid out and something happens, they're going to get sued and even if they win (and I'm not sure they'd win in civil court) they're going to spend a shitload of money defending themselves.

I tell parents quite often I'm not a licensed day care center and don't have the ability to babysit 250+ kids a night. If they want their child to be chaperoned they shouldn't drive away.

But I agree, kicking people off the property opens up some liability for us. We don't kick anyone off the property unless they tried to steal from us (IE- tried to sneak in). If we do kick people out we tell them to wait in the lobby for a ride. And if they can't be quiet in the lobby and not disrupt other people we tell them to wait outside on the sidewalk.

We have a restaurant across the street, same side of the highway but across a street. Whenever we bust someone's balls to quiet down or we actually kick someone out, generally they just walk across the street to Applebees and all their friends who came with them leave as well. The time before this the police were called (about three weeks ago) a father called to file a complaint on me. Apparently I kicked out a girl for good reasons, there was no complaints about that. But his daughter left the theater and went to Applebees with the group of kids that were with the girl. Now mind you only one child was kicked out and she was instructed to wait in the lobby, she was offered a phone to call her parents and I offered to call the police to pick her up and take her home. She refused and walked out. On her way she must have sent someone a text message or something because her entire group shortly after followed and went to Applebees (across the street).

He was upset that I didn't stop his daughter from leaving. His argument was that he left his child in my care and only gave her permission to be at the theater. I shouldn't have allowed her to go to Applebees. The police officer didn't even bother asking for my side of the story, his nonsense was more than enough to tell the parent that if he wants his kid parented he'll have to actually be there and his child is not my responsibility. The guy was being an idiot before he called the police. He was arguing with me and just carrying on like an idiot. I told him I didn't give her permission to go to Applebees either, maybe that's something he has to take up with his daughter and not me. To which he replied that I'm the adult and should know better. I said I do know better, but unfortunately I can't physically restrain kids either, and half the kids who come to our theater either walk over from Applebees before the movie or walk there after the movie. It's not my decision to decide whose kids are allowed to do what.

For the record Applebees hates these damn kids too. They occupy tables, order very little to no food and often don't tip or don't pay their full bill. Whenever we have problems with kids we typically call up the other establishment and give a description of the kids and we refuse service to them.

imind · 01-07-2007, 05:30 PM

so how did it end?

JaJae · 01-07-2007, 06:04 PM

Originally Posted by imind

so how did it end?

Basically the police officer did all the arguing for me. She was complaining about us kicking kids out and throwing kids in the parking lot where they could get hurt. It's dangerous of me to do that... the kids won't be safe, etc etc. The officer told her I didn't kick anyone out, but even if I wanted to it's private property and I have that right. He also told her every Friday night there's tons of kids hanging out in our parking lot. If parents want to know what their kids are doing they shouldn't leave them alone.

So then she started saying that they paid for their ticket so they should be allowed to sit wherever they want. The officer told her it was private property and they don't have the right to even be on it if I don't want them here, let alone have the option to choose which seat to sit in.

So then she started saying we have no problem taking their money, but then we treat them like second rate customers. If that's how we're going to treat them we should tell their parents ahead of time or not sell them tickets. To which I responded most parents just drop their kids off and leave. If we refuse them admission there would be hundreds of kids stranded in the parking lot and walking the streets, which is what she was upset about a minute ago...

So then the officer turned to the lady and said "Why am I here?" To which she responded, She felt the kids should be able to sit where they want. Mind you only one kid was hers, the rest were strangers to her. She was just being their spokesperson. The officer reminded her that it's private property and they don't have the right to sit where they want. And asked her again.. "So, why am I here?" I said "... because I had an irate woman in my theater disrupting my guests." To which she said something like "I just don't think it's fair that..." and the officer cut her off and responded with something like "Well I don't think it's fair he's being stuck with a hundred unsupervised kids either, but that doesn't mean they don't have the right to run their business as they see fit."

So then she responded "well they should have a sign or something to inform us of the policy." The officer said "He verbally told you their policy." To which she just kind of scoffed and rolled her eyes. After that the officer said something like "well it looks like we're done here..." and took me aside to get my information for the report and then got hers and left. She took her daughter home after I gave them a refund.

It was actually kind of funny. One of the kids who didn't have a stub called their mom. I gave three passes to kids who didn't have stubs. And they tried scalping them. I was gonna go out and yell at them, but some older kids who were coming up to the box office stole their passes as they were trying to scalp them. And literally turned them in to our box office attendant who laughed and gave them their free tickets. The girls complained to me and I just laughed and said there was nothing I could do, I didn't see it... but I'm pretty sure there's a police officer in the area who would be sympathetic to their cause.

So I got a good laugh at the end. And the lady was calm after the officer showed up. She stopped her temper tantrum. She was a bit arrogant and came off slightly rude, but she definitely calmed down. So it wasn't so bad at that point.

kinggovernor · 01-07-2007, 07:14 PM

Originally Posted by JaJae

It was actually kind of funny. One of the kids who didn't have a stub called their mom. I gave three passes to kids who didn't have stubs. And they tried scalping them. I was gonna go out and yell at them, but some older kids who were coming up to the box office stole their passes as they were trying to scalp them. And literally turned them in to our box office attendant who laughed and gave them their free tickets. The girls complained to me and I just laughed and said there was nothing I could do, I didn't see it... but I'm pretty sure there's a police officer in the area who would be sympathetic to their cause.

So I got a good laugh at the end. And the lady was calm after the officer showed up. She stopped her temper tantrum. She was a bit arrogant and came off slightly rude, but she definitely calmed down. So it wasn't so bad at that point.

it would have been better if she started getting lippy with the cop and went to jail

7960 · 01-07-2007, 07:22 PM

Originally Posted by JaJae

His argument was that he left his child in my care and only gave her permission to be at the theater. I shouldn't have allowed her to go to Applebees.

You need to call DYS (or whatever you call the youth services dept) and tell them a stranger abandonded his daughter on your grounds. He'll be in for YEARS of headaches including follow-ups, unannounced home visits, etc. I'm sure that's worth his afternoon without the kids

JaJae · 01-07-2007, 08:24 PM

Originally Posted by 7960

You need to call DYS (or whatever you call the youth services dept) and tell them a stranger abandonded his daughter on your grounds. He'll be in for YEARS of headaches including follow-ups, unannounced home visits, etc. I'm sure that's worth his afternoon without the kids

Yea we have DYFS out here.

JaJae · 01-07-2007, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by kinggovernor

it would have been better if she started getting lippy with the cop and went to jail

Yea I would have laughed pretty hard at that point. Everyone has always calmed down once the police arrived. Never had an instance where the police arrived and the person was still going off like they were when the police had to be called.