$25 Million Lawsuit Filed Against Sesame Place

LANGHORNE, PA — A family that says a Sesame Place character ignored Black guests during a recent event has filed a $25 million class-action lawsuit alleging racial discrimination.

The suit, filed against Sesame Place's owner SeaWorld in Pennsylvania federal court, says that costumed characters like Elmo, Ernie, and others refused to speak to Black children during recent meet and greet events, while hugging and high-fiving white children. It cites racist behavior dating to July 2018, and seeks a jury trial for damages inflicted since then.

"The behavior of Sesame Place's costumed park workers is reprehensible," civil rights attorney William Murphy, who is representing one of the families, said in a statement. "Class members, some as young as 5 years old, adore these characters, and to be shunned by them so brazenly will have a lasting negative affect on their sense of self-worth."

Murphy added that other videos on social media show that ignoring Black children is a demonstrable pattern at Sesame Place.

"Sadly, discriminatorily behavior like this knows no bounds and can target even the most innocent," Murphy added.

Since the recent incident became public, videos making similar claims have surfaced online and pressure has mounted against Sesame Place. Two people were arrested during a recent protest at the park.

Pennsylvania mother Jodi Brown called out the Langhorne theme park on Instagram earlier this month 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.

With reporting from Patch correspondent Dan Hampton