RAVENNA, Ohio — The vast majority of Ravenna 7 Movies theatergoers support the venue's new admittance policy after Ravenna police were called to the location for a significant teen disturbance on May 21.
The new policy states no one under the age of 16 will be admitted into the theater for movies starting after 6 p.m. without a legal parent accompanying them throughout the movie.
The Ravenna police report indicated multiple complaints from customers from two separate theaters about groups of juveniles running around and disrupting the movies. Theater staff advised police they asked the groups of juveniles to leave, but they refused to comply. One female staff member reported, "one juvenile told her to "shut up and that he would come back and stab her."
Ravenna 7 Movies director of operations told News 5 teen disruptions at the facility have become chronic and that the admittance policy change was needed to assure an enjoyable movie going experience.
Ravenna police confirmed it has reached an agreement with Ravenna 7 Movies ownership to have an officer posted at the the theater every Friday and Saturday night and will review police body cam video of the May 21 incident in an effort to identify the juveniles involved and contact their parents.
Ravenna 7 theatergoer Barbara Kubala told News 5 she agrees with the policy change and hopes it sends an important message to parents and teens who visit to the theater.
“Supervise your children and show them what the laws are, and remind them that even though you’re under 18 you can still be arrested,” Kubala said. “Ravenna has had a problem for a long time with unsupervised middle school and high school students.”
"I think it was the right thing to do to keep their investment, to keep a nice movie theater. It’s time to take action, right, if the parents aren’t going to discipline their children, then we need to show them what to do.”
