‘These Guys Pop Out of Nowhere’: Black Teacher Chaperoning School Trip to Universal Studios Florida Says Park Employees Racially Profiled Him and His Son, Accused Them of Sneaking In Park
A Black teacher from South Carolina alleges that he and his son were racially profiled by park agents at the Universal Studios Florida theme park and were held in an interrogation room for two hours, where he was accused of not having a ticket.
The educator who goes by @itscoachtou on TikTok explained that he and his son, who attends the school where he teaches, visited the park with several other high school seniors, faculty members, and chaperones to celebrate the students ahead of their graduation. The school purchased several tickets under the same name for a four-day visit to three parks — Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and Volcano Bay.
On their first day in Orlando, the group visited the park briefly to do some sightseeing before checking into their hotel. The teacher said a park employee told the group that they could snap pictures of their tickets to store on their phones instead of bringing the physical tickets back each day of their visit.
The next day, the educator said that everyone in his party scanned their tickets by phone, yet he was the only person stopped by an employee at the gate, who told him that his ticket couldn’t be accepted and that he would have to get another ticket. At that point, his son, who had already gained entry to the park, passed him his ticket to be scanned and let through the gate.
A few hours after the entire group was let inside, the teacher said he was standing with his son and a white chaperone when a few park employees approached them and accused the teacher of not having a ticket.
“I get a tap on my shoulder, and it’s like these guys pop out of nowhere, and they just like, ‘hey, you guys come with me?’” he recalled. “So, I am thinking it’s a joke.”
The teacher said employees led them to a part of the park with a building full of interrogation rooms, but a park agent told the white chaperone he could leave and go back in the park, even though the chaperone stated he was with them.
The teacher and his son were directed to an interrogation room where one of the park employees began harshly interrogating them about their visit to the park, their tickets, and took their IDs. The teacher told the worker that he and his son were on a school trip, and he needed to scan another ticket the school had purchased after he was denied access to the park that day.
The park employee wasn’t amenable to his story and continued questioning him, showing him surveillance photos that showed when he accessed the park that day and the previous day, as well as another surveillance image of a Black faculty member, despite the fact that the entire group included Black and white faculty members and chaperones.
Even after other employees were able to verify the teacher’s story, the park employee continued to keep him and his son confined to the interrogation room.
The educator has not yet explained how he and his son were finally released. Atlanta Black Star reached out to him for further comment about the incident.