KC hotel evicts Conn. youth group in middle of the night for noise; group blames race

Conn. youth group evicted from KC hotel

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Dozens of children with a Connecticut youth group and their parents were kicked out of a Kansas City hotel in the middle of the night this week after hotel officials said they had gotten tired of fielding noise complaints from other guests.

But members of the Nation Drill Squad and Drum Corps, based in New Haven, claim their eviction from the Sheraton Kansas City Sports Complex Hotel culminated several days of what they called prejudicial treatment because they are black.

“Everyone should be respected regardless of your skin color,” said Douglas Bethea, director of the group of 32 drummers and dancers, ages 4 to 17.

Bethea’s group arrived at the hotel Sunday to participate in the Elks Grand Lodge World National Championships, a competition for youth drill and dance teams, which was held at another Kansas City hotel.

He claimed the group, which included more than a dozen chaperones, received poor treatment almost from the start with some of their 10 rooms lacking toilet paper and members having to wait two days for their rooms to be cleaned by housekeeping.

Ted Frerking, the hotel’s general manager, said his staff received several noise complaints over the first three days, which they relayed to the group’s leaders. He said he didn’t know of any toilet paper supply problems and housekeepers may not have made the beds because the guests had left personal items on them and staff are prohibited from touching guests’ property.

The group won numerous trophies at the competition Tuesday and returned to the hotel in high spirits, said Titiana Person, a parent of three drill squad members who was a chaperone on the trip.

She said hotel staff warned the group’s adults about noise after some of the children came back from the swimming pool and were visiting each others’ rooms.

“They were being typical kids,” Person said. “They (hotel officials) wanted us to go in our rooms and stay in our rooms. That’s not possible.”

Frerking said the group was given a final warning at 10:30 p.m. and told that subsequent complaints would result in the group being asked to leave.

By 1:15 a.m., Bethea and Person said the children had settled down while some of the adults sat in one room, talking and laughing. They said a hotel official came to the room and said they were being evicted.

“He comes to the door and says, ‘You people have to leave this hotel now … or we will call the cops and they will come move you by force,’” Bethea said. “When they came to kick us out everyone was asleep.”

He claimed eight officers came upstairs immediately and, armed with stun guns and Mace, helped hotel security pull group members from their beds.

“I was scared to hear cops with Tasers and things like that,” said drummer Ronald Huggins, 17. “The kids were scared, we were scared. We didn’t know what to expect.”

Kansas City police spokesman Darin Snapp disputed parts of the account, saying there were only five officers at the hotel and they were present only to “keep the peace.”

“At no time did we ever enter rooms or pull out Tasers or Mace; we didn’t have to,” Snapp said.

Frerking said his hotel’s security doesn’t carry stun guns or Mace. He denied the eviction was based on race.

“The only issue was noise,” he said. “If other guests hadn’t complained we would never know.”

The group left Kansas City on Wednesday, and the hotel reimbursed the group for the two nights it didn’t stay at the hotel. But Bethea said he is considering his legal options.

“What about the pain and suffering and the crying and the kids being woken up and scared half to death?” he said.