DVC owner allegedly inappropriately touching characters

[Ms.Minnie]

Been a lot of false accusations going around the last few years. I think it best to reserve judgement until he's proven guilty.

Exactly my point.

That's an unfortunate, commonly believed myth.

The incidence of false allegations of sexual abuse is about the same as an other crime (which is low).

You can believe what you want just as I will believe what I want. I do believe that there have been many false accusations of all sorts over the last few years that have later been proven false. The problem is that our "wonderful" news media is very quick to blast the accusations all over the news but they never give the same amount of attention to the retractions that have to later be made because they wanted to be the first to get the big scoop out and it later proves to be wrong.

I just hope none of us is ever accused of something that we didn't do and have everyone pass judgement on us like there is no possibility that it could be a false accusation. I'm not saying the person didn't do what he is being accused of I'm just saying we should use a little restraint before convicting someone without all the facts.

 

[Ms.Minnie]

I'm not a hug fan of character meets, I try to avoid them whenever possible. I don't mind watching from afar but I don't need any up close and personal meetings with the characters. In a couple of weeks we will be at WDW with two of our grandchildren and we will be doing a couple of character meals for them. We will see how it goes, two years ago they were a little too young to enjoy meeting the characters, maybe this year will be better.

 

[cep101]

The character has a photographer and possibly an assistant to help watch over things. Disney is backing their employee who is claiming this happened, so I doubt that it is just her word against his.

Furthermore, every time a character reports this kind of thing, it is noted on Disney's end. If this women was claiming inappropriate touching left and right Disney would know. I assume she isn't because Disney believes her claim, so she must be an upstanding employee and isn't out to blame men falsely.

He has been in trouble TWICE in the same month with inappropriate touching of two different Disney employees.

Furthermore, I could see how someone might accidentally graze a chest area with a hand or something and immediately apologize. I do not see how someone could GROPE a left side of a chest THREE times accidentally. There is a difference between grope and an accidental brush over.

Yeah people should be careful when touching people they don't know. This includes character interactions. I am careful not because I live in fear of being accused of doing something but because it is the right thing to do. I do not know this person who is in this character suit, I would hate for them to feel uncomfortable in my presence.

People who are hired to be characters know what comes with the job. They know it includes thousands of interactions with people they do not know, and this includes being touched by them in non inappropriate ways. Heck, some young kids accidentally touch them inappropriately and do things one wouldn't expect. I am sure Disney hires accordingly and doesn't hire people who will be offended by a meaningless/accidental touch. GROPING on the chest is something that should not be tolerated.

Disney is quite lenient with its guests. I have personally seen characters dealing with delusional guests who want to say or do inappropriate things with the character. In a specific case, the cast members tried to handle it with grace and make sure nothing bad happened to the character. They didn't kick the person out of the park, they just knew who they were and what they were up to and protected the character from him. Granted the person in this story was not mentally all there. But this isn't an uncommon thing for characters to be faced with.

 

[Firepath]

And the CMs can't go out of character, so if they get groped, they can't punch the groper or tell them off. they just have to endure it. That's why the attendants are so important.

 

[GoingSince1990]

Just a thought . . I wonder if Disney might limit character interactions to kids 12 and under in order to cut out a lot of this behavior.

An adult male without kids waiting in line to interact with a Disney Princess has "red flag" written all over it.

 

[DuskKodesh]

An adult male without kids waiting in line to interact with a Disney Princess has "red flag" written all over it.

Hundreds of people male and female meet the princesses every day without incident. Thinking someone is up to something simply because they are male is ridiculous. Men can like princess movies too.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

He’s not in court. Neither WDW nor DIS commenters need to presume his innocence. Multiple incidents with the same couple and they’re on camera, that’s how they identified him. There are cameras everywhere.

Character performers are expected to stay in character at all times regardless of the age of the guest they are meeting. I don’t think they are about to limit character meets to children only (what defines a child for these purposes? Under the age of puberty?) but there might be an informal no hugging adult men thing.

 

[crisi]

The character has a photographer and possibly an assistant to help watch over things. Disney is backing their employee who is claiming this happened, so I doubt that it is just her word against his.

Furthermore, every time a character reports this kind of thing, it is noted on Disney's end. If this women was claiming inappropriate touching left and right Disney would know. I assume she isn't because Disney believes her claim, so she must be an upstanding employee and isn't out to blame men falsely.

He has been in trouble TWICE in the same month with inappropriate touching of two different Disney employees.

Furthermore, I could see how someone might accidentally graze a chest area with a hand or something and immediately apologize. I do not see how someone could GROPE a left side of a chest THREE times accidentally. There is a difference between grope and an accidental brush over.

Yeah people should be careful when touching people they don't know. This includes character interactions. I am careful not because I live in fear of being accused of doing something but because it is the right thing to do. I do not know this person who is in this character suit, I would hate for them to feel uncomfortable in my presence.

People who are hired to be characters know what comes with the job. They know it includes thousands of interactions with people they do not know, and this includes being touched by them in non inappropriate ways. Heck, some young kids accidentally touch them inappropriately and do things one wouldn't expect. I am sure Disney hires accordingly and doesn't hire people who will be offended by a meaningless/accidental touch. GROPING on the chest is something that should not be tolerated.

Disney is quite lenient with its guests. I have personally seen characters dealing with delusional guests who want to say or do inappropriate things with the character. In a specific case, the cast members tried to handle it with grace and make sure nothing bad happened to the character. They didn't kick the person out of the park, they just knew who they were and what they were up to and protected the character from him. Granted the person in this story was not mentally all there. But this isn't an uncommon thing for characters to be faced with.

Disney is liable to their employees if they are sexually assaulted and Disney doesn't take action and treat it as serious. As a private entity, we - the populace - have no individual right to be in a Disney park - as long as they don't discriminate based off protected class. They can ban any of us for behavior - even perceived behavior. However, they cannot legally ignore the reports made by employees that they've been sexually assaulted.

 

[jerseyduke]

With the sheer number of people in the parks, and the sheer number of wack jobs in the world, sadly I am sure it happens more than reported.
I am there alone at times, and I hate the cattle herding mentality of the queues where if you are not actually licking the neck of the person in front of you, you arent close enough. I purposefully maintain some distance and semblance of personal space.

I also think the jack***s are making a rather large assumption that the person under the costume is of the gender of the character.