Heartless cinema bosses booted a seven-year-old girl with Down’s Syndrome out of a kids film – because she was LAUGHING too loudly.
Sienna Brown was banned from cartoon caveman comedy ‘The Croods’ when Cineworld staff claimed members of the audience had moaned about her making a noise.
Shockingly, staff told mum Ema Louise Brown that Sienna’s laughing breached the cinema’s “noise policy” and asked her to leave and come back when the theatre was less busy.
Ema, 28, is now calling for a boycott of the cinema chain and demanding an apology.
Mum-of-two Ema, from Birmingham, had taken Sienna and her son Shaun, nine, to see the matinee showing of the film at the cinema on Broad Street, Birmingham on Saturday.
The family had watched around half of the U-rated prehistoric comedy starring Nicholas Cage and Ryan Reynolds when staff asked them to leave.
Ema said: “Sienna was laughing her head off, as were the other children, but we were asked to leave by a very rude member of staff because she was apparently laughing too loud.
“I said to him that she has Down’s and is quite loud at times but was only laughing. He said: ‘Well I need you to leave’.
“My child has Down’s and is loud with her laugh because she doesn’t understand to laugh quietly.
“My daughter is just like everyone else, laughing and enjoying a film.”
She added that after demanding to see the manager he “laughed” at her when she said her daughter was being targeted.
A Cineworld spokesman said they had received complaints from other audience members and the family had been offered free tickets to return to a later screening in line with the company’s noise policy.
Since writing about her experience on Facebook, dozens of angry customers have bombarded the firm’s website demanding Cineworld apologise to the family.
Ema wrote on the Cineworld Facebook site hours after the incident: “I am just writing on here to ask for support in boycotting the Cineworld cinemas until it’s dealt with and we are reassured it won’t happen again as I am so disgusted and upset about it.”
A Cineworld spokesman said: “We were extremely sorry to hear about Ema Louise Brown’s experience with her family on Saturday.
“We are arranging for her to return to our cinema later this week to meet our senior management team and share views on how we can handle these situations more sensitively.”
The family are now set to return to the cinema for the meeting.
Parent Rosalind Perry, who wrote on Facebook supporting Ema, said: “I think it is disgusting the way a family with a downs syndrome child was treated at your broad street birmingham cinema your staff are an absolute disgrace and should have to make a public apology then actually spend time with children with downs they are special and embrace life and dont discriminate against others who are unfortunate to be ignorant !!!!!! (sic).”
