Daycare movie trip turns sour as children, parents are escorted out following incident

JACKSON, Tenn. — What was supposed to be a fun night out, took a turn for the worse and left a group of kids frightened.

Gracie’s Baby Daycare in Jackson scheduled a field trip to Empire 8 movie theater around 7:30 Tuesday night for a showing of Zootopia 2.

When parents and chaperones went to grab snacks, they say they were met with resistance.

“Immediately, when she said ’23’, the cashier looked as if her mouth just dropped,” said Raven Collier, parent and chaperone.

Collier says the cashier told them they did not have enough staff to fulfill the order for 23 snack packs plus the chaperones’ orders. But she says prior to their arrival, employees knew a large group was attending.

“The manager started to just go in an uproar. She started hollering. She started saying they were going as fast as they could, and Miss Cook then stated, ‘We’re not rushing you guys,'” said Collier.

After heated back and forth conversation and choice words, Collier says the manager told them to leave.

“She said ‘You guys cannot come back in, I’m going to escort the kids out,’ but mind you, these was 4 and 5 year olds, so the director then again said ‘No, we’ll just go in ourselves and grab our kids,'” said Collier.

The situation escalated even further when the theater manager called 911 furious and two Jackson Police Department officers arrived.

“One of the lady officers then came, she was very aggressive. She walked around the theater flashing lights in all of the kids’ faces. At this point, the kids started screaming because a cop was screaming get out. ‘Get up! Get out!,'” said Collier.

The incident was shared to social media, leaving thousands of people in an uproar and many leaving negative reviews about the theater. Collier said her five-year-old woke up Wednesday morning even more confused.

“Why did they call the police on us or why did the police put us out? And me having to explain, it was nothing you did baby, it was just a misunderstanding and him still not knowing what that is,” said Collier.

JPD released a statement, saying:

“The Jackson Police Department is aware of the social media post circulating regarding an incident that occurred on December 9, 2025 at a local movie theater. A citizen’s complaint has been officially filed, and we are conducting an investigation to review all available information and determine the facts regarding our officers’ response.
We understand and appreciate the public’s concern. Our commitment remains to transparency, accountability, and ensuring every complaint is handled with the seriousness it deserves.

As this is an active investigation, no further details are available at this time.”

Phoenix Theatres CEO, Phil Zacharetti, has informed us they are actively investigating the incident and pulling video feed, he also says “For the ones that were there, if they took anything wrong, we apologize for that.”

WBBJ reached out to JPD for a copy of the police report, but was denied after being told it was an active investigation and could not be released. An open records request for body camera footage has been made as well, but no response has been received yet.

Additionally, we asked Jackson Mayor Scott Conger for a response on how JPD handled the situation but were told they would not provide comment.

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