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Movie 'extras' unwelcome

Noise, rudeness and sex sometimes accompany teens.

By Jessica Vander Velde, Times Staff Writer
Published February 15, 2008

Deputy Belinda Denbigh talks to a teenager at the theater. One deputy at the location said he sometimes feels like a babysitter.
	[Kathleen Flynn | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Kathleen Flynn | Times] Azia Hill, from bottom left, laughs with Taylor Byington, Yackie Schiffer and Lyndsay Morris, all 13, outside the AMC theater.

BRANDON 

"MATTHEW!" several girls yell as they run toward their friend at the Brandon movie theater.

They weren't expecting to see him, but that's normal. They're always running into people from school on Friday nights.

"It's the place to be," says Jina Roscoe, 13.

The seven friends squeeze onto a bench in the theater lobby. They have tickets to see Meet the Spartans, but that's not why they came. Like many teenagers in eastern Hillsborough County, they just need a place to hang out.

"We come here to get away from parents so we can be crazy," Roscoe says.

Hundreds of teens flock to the AMC Regency 20 theater in Brandon each weekend. It's the busiest AMC theater in the region, manager Ray Morales said. And it's one of the few hangouts for teens in southeastern Hillsborough County. But tensions arise when hanging with friends turns into loitering, fighting, yelling or having sex behind the movie theater - all regular events, sheriff's deputies say.

Morales loves that teens bring their business to his theater, but some also start fights and talk through movies, he said. During winter break, the theater had more problems with teens than normal, so they recently added a third sheriff's deputy inside to make sure they "take it down a notch" when the movies start, Morales said.

* * *

On a cool Friday night in late January, several teens push each other in shopping carts. Others laugh with friends as they sit near the "no loitering" signs outside the theater. Inside, they buy candy and popcorn. They chill on benches and gossip, giggle and judge people passing by - all at a loud volume. It's not criminal activity, but it's annoying to many moviegoers.

"You'd be surprised the amount of families who come out here and say, 'I'm never coming back again,' " sheriff's Deputy Tommy Martinez said.

Martinez patrols the Regency Square plaza in his car. He asks kids standing around who they're waiting for, and drives past the occasional foggy-windowed car.

He has had this off-duty job for about 12 years, and there has been a kid with a BB gun, gang fights and a stabbing, he said. He and other deputies catch frisky couples behind the theater about once a week. One time, two naked teens were caught in a Dumpster, sheriff's Deputy Chris Fauskee said.

While Martinez patrols in the car, Fauskee is on foot, and he's on a mission to bring the families back to the theater. Families stopped coming in the evenings years ago when there was a lot of violence at the theater, but that's decreased, he said.

* * *

Fights have dropped steadily in the past five years, and the number of assaults plummeted in 2005 and 2006, according to Sheriff's Office reports for the plaza, which includes the theater and nearby shops. Assaults increased slightly in 2007, with seven reported, but there were no fights reported.

"If you get in a fight, you leave immediately," Fauskee said.

But when it comes to teenagers, noise is the common complaint. On weekend nights, a theater worker makes announcements at the beginning of movies, asking audiences to be quiet and respect others.

The sheriff's deputies do the same. Deputy Kevin Cooper stops people from sneaking in the theater through back doors, and he asks others to be quiet while movies are running. He also backs up AMC employees when moviegoers don't heed their requests.

It's an off-duty security job, but Cooper admits he feels like a babysitter when parents drop off kids under age 16.

"They see the deputies outside, so they think it's safe," he said. "My response is, 'Why do you think there's deputies out there?' It's because there's been problems in the past."

He said parents drop their children off, go to dinner, then come back several hours later.

But sometimes it's the kids who ask to be dropped off. It's not cool to be seen with your parents at the theater, Cameron Parker, 15, said.

"At this age, it's kind of embarrassing," he said.

He said he doesn't see any problem with his parents trusting him, and his friend Shane Slonaker, 14, agreed.

"They call us every once in a while," Slonaker said.

Though the theater is packed each weekend with teenagers, some regulars wish they had somewhere else to meet their friends. But in east Hillsborough, it's either the mall, the movie theater or maybe Skateland in Brandon.

"It gets kind of boring," Taylor Byington, 13, said. "I kind of wish there were other places to hang out."

Her mom, Kathy Byington, often drives her and a group of middle school-aged friends to the theater on Friday nights. Byington has lived in Brandon for about 40 years, and she remembers when teens would go to the local civic hall on weekends for activities, such as dances.

"I wish there were other options, but there aren't," she said. "It's different today."

Taylor and her friends, from Brandon and Seffner, usually see a movie. Sometimes, they just buy glow sticks and sodas from the Dollar Tree and take photos.

Some of the other unsupervised kids aren't as well-behaved. Teens often tear apart the store on weekend nights, Dollar Tree assistant manager Anne Bozeman said on a recent Friday night. By 8 p.m., she had already kicked out several groups.

She appreciates their business, but wishes they would "act like humans."

"We hate Friday nights," she said.

Jessica Vander Velde can be reached at jvandervelde@sptimes.com or 813 661-2443.

[Last modified February 14, 2008, 22:26:54]