Autistic Noah Page misses Dumbo after complaints from audience at Faversham Royal Cinema
00:01, 12 April 2019
updated: 06:50, 12 April 2019
An autistic five-year-old boy was forced to miss the end of a film at the cinema after complaints from a fellow audience member.
Now, his mum has spoken of her daily struggle in public, calling for people to be more compassionate.
Vicky Page took son Noah to the 4pm showing of Dumbo at Faversham’s Royal Cinema with her two other children on Saturday, April 6, but felt compelled to leave after just half-an-hour following a confrontation with another member of the audience.
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Mrs Page, who works with special needs adults, says the experience was "very upsetting" and wants people to understand that her child is not misbehaving.
“Noah wasn’t being naughty, he just got extremely excited,” the 36-year-old, of Canterbury Road, said.
“He finds it quite hard to stand still when he gets excited.
"He couldn’t believe Dumbo could fly but instead of saying things quietly, he shouts things out pretty loud, and he just said "elephant fly superhero" and then started really jumping.
“A woman and her son kept turning and giving us quite filthy looks.
“I ended up apologising and I said 'I'm really sorry, he has autism'. And the woman said 'I don't particularly care' and that I should keep him at home if he can't sit still.
“It made me see red and I think in the end Noah saw me tensing up and I had to leave with my children.
"We went through to the foyer,where he ended up having a full blown meltdown and started headbutting the floor.
“It was very upsetting and I ended up getting quite emotional.”
But Mrs Page says this was not an isolated incident, with comments and confrontation a common part of their life.
“I get this sort of thing a lot,” Mrs Page said.
“I try to avoid supermarkets - people tut, or come over to me and say ‘if you walk away from him he’ll follow you’ when he’s laying on the floor, or ‘if you give him a really hard smack he’ll actually start to have some boundaries’.
“This sort of thing happens everywhere with everybody, but it just makes you so cross.
“He does look so normal when he’s not having a meltdown, but if you spoke to him you could tell he’s got needs. He goes to a special needs school, so he is behind for his age. So for him to even shout out I was so proud of him as he has only been able to string a sentence together for the last the year; it shows he’s really coming on.
"I wanted to get my point across and raise awareness because I found the situation really sad and quite heartless..." - mum Vicky Page
“We only got half-an-hour into the film, and it is hard for my other two children, aged nine and 10, as it was a treat for them too.
“They need that treat because it is quite difficult for them as well as we are very limited; our routines have to be quite structured, so they can’t have people round to play.
“It is all about countdowns with Noah, so we had been preparing him for the cinema for a week; we can’t just think let’s go here, there’s lots of preparation with him.”
Mrs Page praised staff at the cinema for their help and says she hopes in the future the Royal Cinema may be able to hold screenings especially for those with special needs.
She said: “People have been so supportive on social media. There have been special-needs mums coming forward and they want to do this trip to the cinema, getting all the special-needs mums together.
“It would be lovely; the children could run around the cinema and make noises.
"I know people say you should go to autism-friendly screenings but they’re miles away.
“I wanted to get my point across and raise awareness because I found the situation really sad and quite heartless.”
