Disney World lifts recruits' lifetime ban

Orlando, Fla. -- Four Florida State University football recruits can re-enter Walt Disney World now that the Florida theme park reversed the teens' lifetime ban.

Disney World announced Thursday it altered sanctions against the four, whose expulsion last weekend spotlighted the park's recent efforts to reduce teen loitering and prompted accusations of racial profiling, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported Friday. The four students are 17 years old and black.

After discussions with their families, Disney officials said the four are banned for a year only from Downtown Disney -- not from other areas of Disney World. Disney Worlds spokeswoman Jacquee Polak didn't elaborate, the newspaper said.

The teens' families said they weren't sure how to respond to the decision.
"We were hoping they would lift the ban entirely. We felt like they shouldn't have been banned at all. We also wanted an apology," Mark Nugent, stepfather of one of the teens, told the Sentinel.

Of the 46 Disney World trespass-warning documents and lifetime bans issued the past two weekends, all but one were issued to black or Hispanic visitors.

Polak told the newspaper the company doesn't have a formal appeals process for lifetime trespass bans but reviews warnings and will discuss cases when asked.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.