Hazlett, New Jersey (WPIX) — A New Jersey family is suing a movie theater chain after an autistic mother and son were kicked out.
their crime? When her mother wanted her son to go to the bathroom, she took him to the girls’ bathroom.
“It was humiliating and scary for my son the whole time,” Holmdel resident Christine Gallinaro told WPIX.
It was supposed to be a fun movie trip for Gallinaro and his 15-year-old son John.
Gallinaro’s husband wasn’t with her, so when the non-verbal John had to go to the bathroom, she took him to the women’s bathroom at Cinemark’s Hazlett 12. There were no family restrooms.
Gallinaro said no one complained in the women’s restroom. She said many understood that her son had special needs and needed an adult to help. But the theater manager told her and her son that she objected.
“I asked her if there was something wrong. I explained that he was disabled, but she said no adult man should be in this bathroom,” Gallinaro said. said.
Gallinaro said the manager called security and then the police to tell them to kick them out of the theater. In a video on her cell phone, Gallinaro said it was clear that security and police were sympathetic to her plight.
The Galinaros filed a lawsuit against the movie theater chain last week.
“What happened that day was illegal, wrong and strange,” said Austin Tobin, a lawyer for the Gallinaro family.
“Since this incident happened and was made public, there has been an overwhelming response of support, especially from mothers of children with disabilities,” said Gallinaro.
Gallinaro said days after the June 16 incident, the local manager of the cinema offered a refund, but his mother told him the humiliation was too great.
WPIX reached out to cinemas for comment on the allegations, but did not receive a response.
