2 Men Cited At Sesame Place Protest Saturday: Report

LANGHORNE, PA - Two individuals were cited during a protest at Sesame Place in Middletown Township on Saturday, according to a Levittown Now report.

The protest, prompted by outrage surrounding a Black family who said a character ignored their two Black daughters during a weekend parade, was met with a ramped-up security presence outside the theme park.

An area near the entrance of the park was squared away to allow for a protest, Levittown Now reported. Water was also provided for attendees.

Middletown police told the publication that vehicles outside the theme park entrance had to swerve to avoid striking protesters, which also blocked families as they attempted to enter the park’s main gates.

The two men were issued citations for obstruction of highways and disorderly conduct after cursing in front of young children and refusing to stop blocking traffic, Chief Joe Bartorilla told Levittown Now.

The men, a 50-year-old Newark, N.J. resident and a 46-year-old Camden, N.J. resident, were not identified by name by police, the publication wrote.

Around two dozen protesters wore New Black Panther Party shirts to the protest as well, the publication added.

It was not immediately clear how many individuals participated in the protest in total.

As Doylestown Patch previously reported, Pennsylvania mother Jodi Brown called out the Langhorne theme park on Instagram last week in a video posted to her account. The nine-second video appeared to show two 6-year-old Black girls viewing a character parade while Sesame Street character Rosita high-fived other attendees.

But when the girls reached out to Rosita as she approached, the character wagged her finger and shook her head as she passed the children.

"THIS DISGUSTING person blatantly told our kids NO then proceeded to hug the little white girl next to us!" Brown wrote in the Instagram post. In the post, she also said she asked to speak to a supervisor, but the staff couldn't tell her who was in charge.

Sesame Place responded to the backlash in a statement posted to Instagram, saying the performer portraying the Rosita character confirmed the "no" hand gesture wasn't directed at any specific person. It was, the park said, in response to requests from someone in the crowd who asked Rosita to hold their child for a photo, which is not allowed.

"The Rosita performer did not intentionally ignore the girls and is devastated about the misunderstanding," the park said last week.

On Thursday night, the park said apologized again to the family, and said they were in contact with Brown and LaMarr, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. They planned to meet to apologize in person, and to hear about the family's experience and work toward improving the park. Among the changes: the park plans to train all workers on how to "deliver an inclusive, equitable and entertaining experience."

"We sincerely and wholeheartedly apologize to the Brown family for what they experienced," Sesame Place said in the statement, according to the newspaper. "To be very clear, what the two young girls experienced, what the family experienced, is unacceptable. It happened in our park, with our team, and we own that. It is our responsibility to make this better for the children and the family and to be better for all families.”

– With reporting by Dan Hampton.