(WICHITA, Kan.)—
You go to a movie expecting to enjoy the show, but all that depends on the audience you sit with.Recently, a Wichita man says he was asked to leave this seat in the Warren Theater, but he says he shouldn't have to, because of his disability.
Kyle Lee can do almost anything you can think of, despite his disability. The 28 year old has Tourette's Syndrome. His episodes are both mechanical and vocal. His body shakes, his feet occasionally stomp, and he makes a noise that is best described as a hiccup.
He said that disability is what cost him a seat in a recent movie. He said he was about 20 minutes into the latest Sylvester Stallone flick when a theater manager at the West Warren asked him to step outside the movie theater.
"So basically they gave me the ultimatum to go see the 10 o'clock flick, to see if I could get kicked out again, or I could leave," he said Friday. "I chose to leave."
On the back of every Warren theater ticket is a disclaimer, saying management reserves the right to ask patrons to switch seats, or even leave the theater. The Warren theater told said it has other customers to think about as well.
In the following 20 second statement, Lee had three episodes. He said he usually has a mild case of the Syndrome, but when he's excited (for example, to see a highly-anticipated movie) or nervous (for example, a TV interview), his episodes are worse. "I don't see myself as a distraction. Because during the movie, the 20 minutes I was there, I only 'touretted' twice. That's two times. Maybe during a quiet moment (that would be distracting), but this is Sylvester Stallone we're talking about here. There's a lot of banging and crashing ... blood and guts in this movie."
Lee says he doesn't want to stay home and wait for a movie to come out on DVD.
But the Warren Theater owner, Bill Warren, says his staff will continue to ask people who disrupt movies in his theaters to exit.
Lee isn't sure he'll be an audience member again. But he said this incident has him re-starting a local Tourette's Syndrome support group. Currently, the closest is in Kansas City.
