Disney Kicks Out Some Pop Warner Teams After Fight

[Seahunt]

From our local Orlando news (cfnews13) - wonder who will sue first :

A group of young athletes were kicked out of Walt Disney World in the middle of the night Saturday.

Disney made the decision to kick out three teams participating in the Pop Warner Superbowl competition --- two from Hawaii and one from Baltimore --- because of a fight between some of their athletes.

According to Disney, it is written into their policy for group packages that everyone will be forced to leave if even one member of the party is involved in a violent act on property.

However, parents said the way they were treated just wasn't right.

"They could have handled it so much better, you know? They really could have. They could have said look you know what? Fine, you guys have to leave in the morning. Then our babies. We have one year old, two year old, three year olds, that we had to just jerk out of bed and they were just crying. You know it was just a bad scene. It was really a bad scene," said Labryanna Kubo, a parent traveling with the Hawaii team.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office is still investigating the incident.

 

[kaabost]

One breaks the rules............one pays the consequences. Hopefully, this was a lesson for the fighters. Hopefully, the parents will punish the fighters instead of blaming Disney for "kicking them out."

 

[Shutterbug]

Hopefully, the parents will punish the fighters instead of blaming Disney for "kicking them out."

Hopefully.......but doubtful
I am sure we will hear why did "I" have to go? It was the other kids.
I wonder how many parents actually knew of this policy or say they didnt know or say they should have at least given the kids a warning.

Actually I give kudos for Disney actually having the..ummm...guts to do this!

 

[undercovermom]

I wouldn't have sent anyone out in the middle of the night. I would have told them they all had to check out in the morning. You take a huge risk kicking people out of hotel rooms in the middle of the night.

but I have no problem with disney enforcing its policy against rowdiness by evicting an entire team because of rowdiness.

 

[Jasminesmommy]

I must be the only one that disagrees. I think only the people involved should be kicked out. Why hold good people accountable for the bad few out there. I would be so mad if i was minding my business and because someone on my DD or DS team got in a fight and we were woking up in the middle of the night and kicked out.

 

[maciec]

I must be the only one that disagrees. I think only the people involved should be kicked out. Why hold good people accountable for the bad few out there. I would be so mad if i was minding my business and because someone on my DD or DS team got in a fight and we were woking up in the middle of the night and kicked out.

What she said!

 

[barkley]

I must be the only one that disagrees. I think only the people involved should be kicked out. Why hold good people accountable for the bad few out there. I would be so mad if i was minding my business and because someone on my DD or DS team got in a fight and we were woking up in the middle of the night and kicked out.

that's one of the risks people take when they go on these group packages-the actions/behaviours of individuals can endanger the entire group. when these group bookings are made the rules and behavioural expectations on the part of those booking within the group are spelled out in the contract. even when an individual family is booking if one member's behaviour is outside the range of acceptability disney can and will cancel the entire family's booking (we saw this happen on a disney cruise-one teen kid with inappropriate behaviour and the entire family was threatened with involuntary removal at the next available port unless they agreed to some special rules to remain on the ship).

having stayed at a non disney hotel that was hosting a group of soccer families for a regional game and dealing with the disturbances it caused us as guests i commend disney or any other hotel chains that enforce these group rules. there are fewer and fewer establishments that will permit sports teams to do group bookings because of issues with damage, fighting and general disturbances which are grossly unfair to the other guests who have paid to enjoy the peacefull use of the facilities. the major chain we were at ended up issuing letters of apology with gift certificates to all of the non team guests that stayed during the time we were there. on a subsequent trip to the same hotel we learned that not only had that chain banned sports group bookings, but several other hotels in the area had followed suit because of similar negative incidents during the same weekend of our previous stay.

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

I say, Kudos to Disney for enforcing their policy!

The point of having such a policy is that it requires the group to police its own. As well they should, but sadly, sometimes it doesn't happen. The group as a whole is the guest of Disney, they should behave properly.

I feel a little bad for the parents who had to leave in the middle of the night, but I still think Disney did the right thing. I'm betting it's a lesson those athletes won't soon forget.

 

[Fitswimmer]

I was part of a touring choir in HS and even way back then when dinosaurs roamed the earth we were all warned that misbehavior by any one of us would result in the ejection of ALL of us.

It's sad that that blame for this whole thing is being laid at Disney's feet instead of at the feet of the guests who actually caused the disturbance. They're the ones that should be blamed for everyone getting kicked out-not Disney.

 

[MushyMushy]

I think Disney definitely did right in kicking these groups out, but not in the middle of the night. I can see the need to get the instigators out immediately and they could have done that, then kicked out the rest of the group in the morning when it would have been more feasible for them to make other arrangements.

 

[EthansMom]

I feel sorry for the family members of any team members who weren't involved in the fight at all.. any of them who were in their hotel rooms or in a different location with a chaperone.

However, if the younger children were sleeping, then why weren't the football players in their hotel rooms too? There wouldn't have been any fighting if all of the players had been with their families in their rooms.

Imagine if you were some unsuspecting guests of the hotel who couldn't sleep late at night because kids are fighting outside your room. It's unlikely that the kids would have been fighting if they were properly chaperoned.

 

[OhMari]

It will be interesting to see where the fight occurred. Was it at the sporting event or at their rooms.

 

[OrlandoMike]

It will be interesting to see where the fight occurred. Was it at the sporting event or at their rooms.

If you click on the video link the story says the fight broke out in the Arcade in the resort.



http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2007/12/9/pop_warner_teams_thrown_out_of_disney.html

 

[Mkrop]

I must be the only one that disagrees. I think only the people involved should be kicked out. Why hold good people accountable for the bad few out there. I would be so mad if i was minding my business and because someone on my DD or DS team got in a fight and we were woking up in the middle of the night and kicked out.

It is called being part of a team. So you take the good with the bad when you agree to be part of that team.

I dont think they should have done it in the middle of the night but we dont know what events took place, how violent was the fighting. Maybe Disney felt they had no choice but to do it then.

 

[Amy]

We just got back from WDW last week from our band trip. Our kids and their parents received a typed list of the behavior that was expected of them. We had plenty of chaperones. The kids had curfews that were strictly enforced. AND, as part of what we paid for (I don't know if it's Disney policy or our own band director's policy) night security guards were posted in the halls to make sure no kids snuck out of their rooms in the middle of the night. I think the biggest problem we had was a couple of kids were late (no more than 15-20 min) to designated meeting places.

Kudos to Disney for enforcing the rules! I do think they should have waited to kick them out in the morning, unless maybe their behavior was so bad and so disturbing to other guests that Disney HAD to evict them in the middle of the night? I'm at work and can't watch the video clip that was referred to in the post above.

 

[barkley]

It is called being part of a team. So you take the good with the bad when you agree to be part of that team.

I dont think they should have done it in the middle of the night but we dont know what events took place, how violent was the fighting. Maybe Disney felt they had no choice but to do it then.

according to the video clip the fighting happened a few hours before disney made the decision to 'evict' the teams-so i'm guessing it must have broken out around 10 or 11 p.m.. it may have taken that long to break the whole thing up and investigate the matter. since at least one kid had his nose broken it sounds like it could have been more than just normal, 'rowdy' competing team behaviours.

i suspect disney decided to implement the full force of this rule because given the nature of at least the one kid's injuries, it could be that the orange county police determined that all the parties should be separated (whoever broke the one kid's nose could be looking at assault charges which could lead to retaliation and more fights on property ). kind of telling that none of the pop warner officials or reps came forward in the news coverage to say disney was doing the wrong thing

 

[phorsenuf]

I agree that they were right in kicking them out and I suppose when they did it makes sense too. If they waited until the morning chances are they wouldn't have caught up with everyone before people took off for the parks in the morning. Maybe that was their thinking?

 

[Geoff_M]

I think at most Disney could be faulted for bouncing the teams in the middle of the night... and I think that's a stretch.

Also, we're hearing the parent's side of the story in this report. There's a lot of details missing. We're only told the fight involved "some" of the players. Are we talking two, or half the team? I also wasn't too impressed with the "the other team started it" defense from the featured parent. It usually doesn't get them far with me when my kids try and play that card!

I can understand Disney's policy of bouncing the whole group. Ejecting part of a group might only increase tensions between those that remained and Disney and lead to more problems. Particularly if the group feels the ejections are unfair (see above).

As for the planned lawsuit.... Uh, good luck with that. I'm guessing the Disney legal department does a pretty good job of writing group touring contracts!

 

[GeorgeG]

I see no reason to tolerate bad behavior at WDW, or anyplace else, for that matter. Disney had every right to enforce a clearly stated policy. To not do so would imply that breaking the rules (both that of WDW and society) is acceptable.

Just imagine... if people could just behave, life would be some much better for all of us.

 

[Pixiedust34]

Just imagine... if people could just behave, life would be some much better for all of us.

Now ain't that the truth!?

The teams broke the rules. They paid the consequences. I support Disney's decision in how they handled the matter.