Unruly DISD Students Disrupt Movie Theatre
Submitted by Allen Gwinn on Thu, 05/21/2009 - 16:15.
Moviegoers watching Star Trek at a North Dallas theatre were treated to an unexpected and unpleasant surprise when a group of as many as 80 graduating seniors disrupted the film they were watching.
When irritated customers tried to get the students to quiet down, the request was met with jeers and disrespect. Finally, management and a teacher had to be called.
The students from...
Wait a minute. This is starting to sound like a news story, and that's not its purpose. It's supposed to be a letter from me about what happened today.
You (students) know what high school you're from.
To the students:
You know, guys, there are a lot of folks on this blog, in your school, church, community and city who believe in you. Many of us appear on your behalf at board meetings and community events.
We volunteer in your schools. We're your parents. We're your neighbors. We donate time and money--for you!
We believe in you. We stand up for you, and want you to succeed.
If you had known that a local blogger was going to make a big deal about your behavior on his blog, would you have acted the way you did?
What about one of your parents or your preacher? If they'd been there, would you have acted that way?
Would your mother, or grandmother, have been proud today?
That's not how they raised you did they?
Your parents are starting to get very interested in your school. More of your community is starting to care what happens there. They're starting to watch how you perform--and how you act.
You guys are seniors. You felt you needed to make a statement today, and it's my understanding that your actions have had (and will have) consequences.
Your principal is a good person. If he wasn't, this would be a life impacting event instead of a learning experience.
Think about this over the next few weeks.
To the parents:
Their behavior was off the scale. They behaved like thugs and animals. They were rude and disrespectful to those around them.
Worse: they failed to keep each other in line.
I kept hoping they were from somewhere else--some other school district. I was shocked and embarrassed when I learned these were our kids from DISD.
Today's outing was a gift to them--as graduating seniors.
Instead of appreciating it and watching a movie, many chose to sit in the snack bar/arcade and just "hang." Some went into, and were thrown out of, other theatres--finally winding up in ours toward the end of the movie.
The management of the theatre was shocked and embarrassed--and I can only hope they don't ask DISD to limit bringing students there in the future.
Now I'm not telling you this to bash on your sons and daughters.
I'm telling you this because I know, good and well, this is not how you raised them.
If the tables were turned, and they were my kids, I would expect you to let me know about something like this--and tonight would not be a pleasant evening for them.
So, in closing, I hope (students) you will think about things you should have thought about long before now. Many of you are getting ready to go off to college or enter the workforce. What will it be next time? Who will be there next time?
Looking back: did you make yourself proud today? Is this really you? Did you represent yourself the way you really are? Did you represent your school, and your classmates, the way it really is (and they really are)?
Because, today, you certainly gave others the opportunity to judge the answers for themselves.
Common courtesy in Dallas - moving in the wrong direction
It is disgusting to see the youth of Dallas acting in such a manner. What kind of company do these kids keep anyway? Better yet, what kind of values was instilled in them by their parents?
Slow to respond
No wonder this site is generation x's answer to complaining. Ya'll are slow to respond. That was back in May..you just now getting around to thinking it over?
Katrina Kids
Any Katrina Kids in there? North Dallas is full of them. Let's send them back to New Orleans.
Katrina Kids
Kids were unruly in DISD long before Katrina and frankly, will be disruptive and unrully long after. It's silly and intellectually dishonest how people in the North Texas and Houston areas use kids that were displaced by Hurricane Katrina as their scapegoats for the ills in their own long disfunctional Texas public school systems. Cowardice and apathy prevent you from tackling the issues of crime and public school futility in your own communities, so you blame the people displaced by Katrina, despite the fact that a large portion have already headed back to Louisiana or elsewhere. If every person who moved to TX after Katrina moved back, North TX and Houston would still have the same level of crime, public school disfunction and ignorance.
After Welcoming Evacuees, Houston Handles Spike in Crime
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/05/AR200602...
http://crime.about.com/od/issues/a/katrinacrime.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1320056
Have some crow pie.
sad but true...
Mr. Gwinn,
I don't know what high school these kids were from but I am saddened to say the answer to the questions you asked these youths in your forum unfortunately sometimes is "yes". I say this because I am a DISD teacher and I see first hand what parents teach their kids. The disrespect that was exhibited in that theater does not take place on just that day in that theater...this behavior takes place all the time. Many of those students come from a culture of poor parenting...parents who allow their kids to behave like morons and then turn around and say, 'not my child'. I work at a school in which parents CONTINUED a fight that their children has started. They became so involved in the fight, one parent pulled out a razor blade and cut up the other parent and very badly. The sad thing is, they wanted to continue the fight on our campus - not the children, the parents!
This is now the culture we live in...very different from the culture of children I taught a few years back. Morality has changed. The sad thing is, if you had called the parents of most of those children, you may have gotten "what's the big deal? ...did he/she break anything?...did they steal or do anything illegal...well then what is the big deal?"
Mr. Gwinn, thank you for all you do. I know you do not hear this enough...the sad thing is, people with values are outnumbered by those who have none.
Students in movie theaters
As a former movie theater manager, I would like to point out to these young people that their behavior is reinforcing a stereotype. I frequently had a group of high school-aged men that were hosted by our theater. They were always well-behaved and grateful for the opportunity for a free screening.
On some occasions I would receive calls from patrons the day following the men's visit, commenting on their decorum. My usual patrons were often shocked at these young men behaving like gentlemen, rather than "thugs". They would tell me they were anxious at first, entering a theater full of youths. The behavior of the DISD seniors mentioned in your blog is expected and tolerated from young people today.
I would like to tell these seniors, expect more from yourself. Shock others with your manners and kindness. Look people in the eye when you speak to them. Smile. Respect yourself and teach those around you that you deserve respect.
Apologize
Mr. Gwinn, I was with the group of seniors from [name removed] who acted out in the movie. My friend and I got up and left when everyone started acting out because thats not how our school is. Only some of us do this and the rest wish they would not. Our teachers and parents teach us to respect others and that was not respect for others. I hope you will accept my apology and I know my classmates will read this and I hope they will apologize too. I know who wrote the other comment above and she and her friends do need "educashun", please don't judge us by her.
[Ed Note: I kept thinking that some of this behavior didn't "sit well" with some of you--because not all of you were misbehaving. I hope there was a lesson somewhere in this for all you guys. Thanks for writing.]
What a shame...
This has happened to me quite a few times in the theaters, to the point of not even going anymore. I think I've been to the theaters about 3 times in the last 12 months (Star Trek being one of them).
Its even more disappointing that it had to happen while watching such a great movie.
[Ed Note: What's disappointing is it was DISD students. With the District "coming up" in the rankings, you'd think this would be a source of pride with the seniors (especially). It's disappointing that, with a few of them, it is not.]
who ever wrote this have no
who ever wrote this have no life what is the use of bloging this there is much more serious things out there in the world you need to be worring about
[Ed Note: who ever wrote this have no educashun this there is much more serious things out there you shud be worring about educashun]
re: who ever wrote this have no
If this comment was written by a DISD student, then the district has bigger problems than unruly kids. If it was written by a high school senior, then that senior should not be graduated (yes, that is the correct transitive form of the verb).
I'll bet the writer of this comment doesn't know the difference between a transitive and an intransitive verb, either!
[Ed Note: Most times, we try to correct some of the spelling/grammar -- when we have time. Occasionally, however, we like to let the comments stand on their own. This was one of those times :) ]
Stop making babies people.. see the ruckus they cause.
It doesn't help that people are making more babies.
More babies means we need to build more schools and hire more teachers.
They way the present educational system is set up, there just aren't enough teacher's per classroom. Consequently, educational agencies have to lower standards and bring people off the street to babysit. They may not be able to teach "proper" Anglo/British culture and expectations but at least, the kids will have something to occupy their time like cage matches down in Oak Cliff.
Without schools, you will see more kids out on the street unsupervised and causing all sorts of ruckus. You may see more juvenile crime, i.e., vandalism (because there are no art teachers), petty thievery (because there are no business teacher's), sexual assault (because there are no male teachers that are good role models for proper game technique)... etc.
More cops will have to be hired but to keep the police department funded, you will see more cops handing out tickets for minor infractions such as jaywalking. If things get really bad you may even see death squads like they have in south america where abortion is frowned upon. Because the streets are overrun with kids like a multitude of cockroaches, death squads will be formed like they have done in Guatemala. http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9802/14/guatemala.street.kids/
It will seem as if you are in a fascist country.
So stop making babies!!!
Make housing affordable instead and
Stop making war..
because that's what makes gasoline so expensive and the cost of transportation makes everything expensive.
Or maybe we should rethink our economics based on scarcity.
www.thevenusproject.com
San Diego Kid Protected by Allen Gwinn
Am very sorry to read Allen's report. Because what these junior, thugs-in-the-making, don't realize - is the lengths Allen goes beyond his geographic area to protect kids.
Allen hosts www.FamilyLawCourts.com, and although he's already helped put a fake attorney behind bars, yesterday, Allen also helped end the career of at least one San Diego pedophile.
Please click "Watch the Video" in the link below, as seldom has a more heartfelt moment been captured on film.
http://www.10news.com/news/19532296/detail.html
(Since 2004 Joyce had been emailing the site, asking if she was crazy. Not surprisingly, that is exactly how long I'd been telling her, no; the deal is, report abuse - lose custody. It's good business for the divorce and custody industry, as most parents don't realize there's no government more invasive than a family court judge.)
The pre-trial publicity was so good,
http://www.10news.com/news/19265275/detail.html
along with the next day follow up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYEizzLsdXg
that I suspect it might have encouraged a plea.
So thanks for your hard work on behalf of kids, Allen.
Kids; next time think. Having fun at someone else's expense is not the mark of a winner.
Thank you Allen!
:)