Posted on 08/10/2009 10:04:15 AM PDT by End Times Sentinel
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Dozens of children with a Connecticut youth group and their parents were kicked out of a Kansas City hotel in the middle of the night this week after hotel officials said they had gotten tired of fielding noise complaints from other guests.
But members of the Nation Drill Squad and Drum Corps, based in New Haven, claim their eviction from the Sheraton Kansas City Sports Complex Hotel culminated several days of what they called prejudicial treatment because they are black.
"Everyone should be respected regardless of your skin color," said Douglas Bethea, director of the group of 32 drummers and dancers, ages 4 to 17.
Bethea's group arrived at the hotel Sunday to participate in the Elks Grand Lodge World National Championships, a competition for youth drill and dance teams, which was held at another Kansas City hotel.
He claimed the group, which included more than a dozen chaperones, received poor treatment almost from the start with some of their 10 rooms lacking toilet paper and members having to wait two days for their rooms to be cleaned by housekeeping.
Ted Frerking, the hotel's general manager, said his staff received several noise complaints over the first three days, which they relayed to the group's leaders. He said he didn't know of any toilet paper supply problems and housekeepers may not have made the beds because the guests had left personal items on them and staff are prohibited from touching guests' property.
The group won numerous trophies at the competition Tuesday and returned to the hotel in high spirits, said Titiana Person, a parent of three drill squad members who was a chaperone on the trip.
She said hotel staff warned the group's adults about noise after some of the children came back from the swimming pool and were visiting each others' rooms.
"They were being typical kids," Person said. "They (hotel officials) wanted us to go in our rooms and stay in our rooms. That's not possible."
Frerking said the group was given a final warning at 10:30 p.m. and told that subsequent complaints would result in the group being asked to leave.
By 1:15 a.m., Bethea and Person said the children had settled down while some of the adults sat in one room, talking and laughing. They said a hotel official came to the room and said they were being evicted.
"He comes to the door and says, 'You people have to leave this hotel now ... or we will call the cops and they will come move you by force,'" Bethea said. "When they came to kick us out everyone was asleep."
He claimed eight officers came upstairs immediately and, armed with stun guns and Mace, helped hotel security pull group members from their beds.
"I was scared to hear cops with Tasers and things like that," said drummer Ronald Huggins, 17. "The kids were scared, we were scared. We didn't know what to expect."
Kansas City police spokesman Darin Snapp disputed parts of the account, saying there were only five officers at the hotel and they were present only to "keep the peace."
"At no time did we ever enter rooms or pull out Tasers or Mace; we didn't have to," Snapp said.
Frerking said his hotel's security doesn't carry stun guns or Mace. He denied the eviction was based on race.
"The only issue was noise," he said. "If other guests hadn't complained we would never know."
The group left Kansas City on Wednesday, and the hotel reimbursed the group for the two nights it didn't stay at the hotel. But Bethea said he is considering his legal options.
"What about the pain and suffering and the crying and the kids being woken up and scared half to death?" he said.
“Everyone should be respected regardless of your skin color.”
The stupid leader of this mob saw no irony at all in this statement. What about “respect” for the people who had paid for a room in order to get a night’s sleep?
‘Ahhhhhhhh, but who will teach the adults?’
Ahhhhhhhh, you just asked the $64,000 question!!!! :-)
Since there were about 15 cute girls in the hotel, the boys thought it was clever, funny, whatever, to knock on the doors at night, slide notes under the door and just generally cause ruckus. I was able to pick out one of the coaches and explained the situation that our girls needed to be up early and needed sleep and his boys needed to calm down.
About 10 minutes later, the coach came back and asked if I could get all the parents and girls together and the boys all apologized and promised that there would be no more noise after midnight — and they stuck to that.
After that, the boys were nothing but polite and well-spoken.
As far as race, everyone of the boys were black, and all of our girls were white. There's no excuse for not being polite and these young men showed that they knew how to behave but just needed a reminder from their coach. I was very impressed and the girls ended up having time on the last day and we all went to watch them play. We were their only fans as they didn't have parents there. It turned out to be a sweet day. But if I had just sat and stewed over their behavior and blamed it on their race and not given them a chance to show their manners it would have been very different.
That’s odd. My kids have gone on school sponsored trips and they followed the rules. No noise complaints.
Respect is EARNED, Remember that.
"They were being typical kids," Person said. "They (hotel officials) wanted us to go in our rooms and stay in our rooms. That's not possible."
****************
No sympathy here. This was a hotel, not a dorm.
Stayed in a Comfort Inn in LA last year almost the same....some type of group...”white” and “hispanic”...8? to 14 yo. We were on the 4th floor they were below us. 2:30 am and the TV sets were so loud we thumped on the floor only to be thumped back. Called the manager ( a kid himself) and told him the story. 3:15 am and the TV was turned off, but the parking lot was a riot. At the free breakfast in the morning....6 of em came down and stuffed back packs with fruit and juice, made a mess on the waffle maker that had to be shut down, threw cereal all over the place. Luckily, I’ve been a member for 10 years and easily got my money back plus extra points.
From your link.......
Bethea admits his team has been loud in the past, going so far as to say that that the team should have been kicked out of other hotels. But he says this trip didn’t even come close to that kind of problem.
__________________________________
So. The race-baiter admits his kids have been problems in the past. Yet he would like us to belive they were angels in this instance?
Bulls-—
They wuz just bein black, iz all.
That’s the kind of story we should hear more often. Kudos to the coach and the kids for adjusting to the situation and respecting the girls’ need for sleep. And kudos to your group for reciprocating when the guys played their game.
And notice... it didn’t take any kind of government intervention, just communication and civility on both sides.
Oh, man, the possibilities are endless. How could two parents be so clueless as to saddle a girl with that name???
Play stupid games, get stupid prizes..have a nice trip home.
Exactly
Here too... and you're right about the "adults" in charge. At least I was able to leave with a refund. There is no sense of proper etiquette anymore.
Somebody left the screen door open and a troll came in.
Yep. Respect is earned.
And it can be lost.
It’s not a right.
Drumline dad ping.
“Why hotels allow this and create such an unpleasant experience for their adult guests is beyond me!”
Could it be...
...$$$?
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