Thrown out of the movies because of Tourette’s Syndrome
August 21, 2010 by Leslie E. Packer PhD
Filed under Advocacy
If you are a family member of someone with Tourette’s, this news clip from KWCH in Kansas will be upsetting and may leave you thinking that the movie theater in question violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA):
Does the statement on the back of the ticket make it legally permissible for the movie theater to ask the customer to leave? I don’t think it does or that any such statement would trump the ADA, but I am not a lawyer.
Could the man file suit under the ADA? Sure, but would he prevail? I would hope so, but court is always a crap-shoot. The national Tourette Syndrome Association describes some cases filed under the ADA but does not provide all of the outcomes. Even if a lawsuit might prevail or might motivate the theater to come to some arrangement to avoid litigation, let us not kid ourselves: such suits often result in a public backlash instead of more empathy. As one example, consider the case of a Starbucks customer who sued Starbucks after an unfortunate experience there and read the comments under the news story.
In this case, where the reported symptoms do not seem to be as severe or problematic as the Starbucks case (but see the comment by “dlegrec” under the KWCH story that says that the movie-goer was ticcing once every two minutes), was there really no alternative that the theater could come up with other than telling him to leave or come back later when he might have the same problem?
Every day in our country, children and adults with TS are asked to leave places of public accommodation. How cruel to treat people as pariahs or to essentially punish them for neurological symptoms. Yes, we need to be sensitive to the rights and needs of others, but surely this could have been handled effectively with greater compassion and tolerance.
I wouldn’t blame the man at all if he decided to sue the theater. And I sure as heck wouldn’t go to that theater if I lived in that area as I do not want my money lining the pockets of businesses that treat people this way. I hope people of good conscience in that community speak up to say that they want more tolerance in their community.
I have Tourette’s. While stories like this are upsetting, there have been several times when I’ve removed myself from class because my tics where too disruptive. Nobody said anything though. It was much better that it was my decision to leave.