Somerville Theatre bans (young) kids from entering after 6 pm. Let's discuss it here

[ron_newman]

This week's Somerville News has an article about the Somerville Theatre's policy of banning children under 12 8* from entering the theatre after 6 pm, even if they are accompanied by adults.

Is the theatre's policy a service to its customers who want a peaceful movie experience, or is it unfair discrimination against families with young children?

I'm posting this because we can have a more civilized discussion here than on the Somerville News blog comments. Ian Judge, the theatre's manager, reads this community, so we may be able to provide useful feedback to him here.

* Edited 11:55 am to add: I have a serious factual issue with this article. It says the policy applies to children under 12, but the theatre's website and exterior signs say it's for children under 8. That's a significant difference -- maybe significant enough to change people's opinions.

Second edit, 3 pm: Ian Judge has clarified that the theatre's policy is to exclude children under 8, not 12, from entering after 6 pm. He had made an erroneous statement to the News reporter which very unfortunately made it into the published article. Also, here is Ian's response to the specific incident detailed in the News article.

Comments

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Good idea, why didn't I think of that?

It's not like there's ever crime associated with that stretch of the path at all.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Right! Let's go German on this and broadly condemn everyone under the age of 20 for the actions of a few. Keep going here- I'm intrigued how far down the rabbit hole goes.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Why don't we all get back to being rational about this and recognize that what's needed is better enforcement and monitoring of the activities at the various parks and playgrounds where there have been noise complaints, alcohol complaints, and muggings.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Thank you for a sane comment. The answer is precisely that- better monitoring. But banning kids or shutting down parks is not the answer. If anything, kids need more places to go, not less, and suggesting that by 9pm little Snowflake should be tucked into bed reading their Bible, as some people have suggested in so many words, is totally unrealistic and frankly, pretty ignorant.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

After last weeks assault issue, I do feel that some of the groups who have been at the lexington park courts in and around 10pm are directly and indirectly related to the thugs feeling like they can get away with harassing and even assaulting people on the path.

The kids playing hoops there, not so much.
their friends who come along, and start trash talking each other, and then they start doing that to the people on the path, maybe.
The ones who see that no one does anything about them being loud there at 11:30, and decide, fuck it, I'm bringing some brews, too.

Yes, arguing that the kids who are just playing hoops at 9:59 are the problem is a fucking stupid slippery slope, but the slippery slope also happens to apply to problems, not just arguments.

The original article has these paragraphs, which need to be highlighted in light of Ian Judge's complaints about the Anderson children:

But Anderson and other parents say the theatre policy is symptomatic of a troubling trend against youth in Somerville. She cited the city's inability to make a skate park due to community efforts against the idea. Robbie Anderson said he and his friends are sometimes kicked out of playgrounds by police before the park curfew begins. Renee Anderson believes this is due to adults calling the police when they see a gathering of kids at the park.

“What do they want them to do? They can't go to the parks. They can't go to the movies. They're leaving them with no options,” she said. “You would think people would want something better for the kids.”

Yeah, Renee Anderson and her children would like you to believe it's about the City and the community not liking ANY children, when what it seems like to me, is the city and the community not liking children who can't abide by rules.

The city HASN'T banned the kids from going to the parks - her kids were kicked out, as far as we can tell, once from a park, before curfew on that site.