Six Flags Agrees to Settle Discrimination Suit

Six Flags Inc. will pay $5.6 million to settle a class-action lawsuit claiming that Magic Mountain’s policy of screening suspected gang members discriminates against African Americans and Latinos.

Civil rights groups and some customers have long complained that the Valencia amusement park’s aggressive anti-gang rule unfairly targets minority patrons based solely on their appearance.

Under the settlement, Six Flags will eliminate the policy, which plaintiffs said allows park employees to stop and question any park visitor they think might be a gang member.

More than 150 people joined the class-action lawsuit since it was filed in 2001. Those plaintiffs, as well as other park visitors who can prove they were victims of discrimination, will divide the cash settlement, as well as 7,000 day passes to the park.

Six Flags officials denied any wrongdoing and said they agreed to the payout to get the matter behind them. However, they agreed to have employees undergo diversity training and to allow the plaintiffs’ attorneys to review records on who is turned away from the park for the next four years.

“We’ve never discriminated against anybody,” said Sue Carpenter, a spokeswoman for Six Flags California. In the past, Magic Mountain has “employed a security screening program that it believed was lawful and protective.”

Six Flags established a screening policy after a 1985 knife fight at the park involving three street gangs left six people injured. Almost immediately, however, the policy was criticized by Latino and African American park visitors who said they felt targeted by park employees.

In 1989, Six Flags settled two lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of two families who claimed park security guards accused them of being gang members because of the clothes they wore and because they were Latino. Magic Mountain settled those cases by agreeing to modify its screening policy.

But the complaints continued.

In 2001, a group of park visitors filed lawsuits in Los Angeles Superior Court accusing the park of “improper racial profiling,” as well as harassment, assault and unlawful detainment. The plaintiffs said the employees’ actions violated state civil rights laws and the California Business and Professional codes.

Israel Cole, a 1984 Olympic athlete who won a bronze medal in boxing for Sierra Leone, was one of the plaintiffs named in the suit. Cole claimed he was assaulted, falsely imprisoned and threatened by Magic Mountain security guards, who also made fun of his African heritage.

Other plaintiffs, including members of church groups, schoolchildren and a group of librarians, said they were treated poorly and with suspicion because of their race.

Their attorneys said they hope the settlement will bring lasting change.

“It’s nice to resolve a matter, but it’s even nicer to resolve a matter that is going to have a long-term impact,” said Mike Arias, an attorney with the lead firm on the case.

In addition to the diversity training, Magic Mountain recently established a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department substation at the park to handle security. Five deputies now patrol the park full time.

Arias said he hopes that change will place the job of policing Magic Mountain in deputies’ hands instead of park employees’. Employees should “try to get away from acting like police,” he said.

Additionally, Magic Mountain security has begun universal bag checks, and guests must pass through metal detectors at the gates of the park, Six Flags officials said.

Carpenter declined to give details on the screening policy, but stressed that it did not discriminate against anyone. “We continue to enforce our strict rules for appropriate conduct for all visitors and employees of the park,” she said.

The agreement was hammered out several weeks ago. A court hearing is scheduled for Aug. 5, when the agreement is expected to be finalized.

Carpenter said Six Flags agreed to the settlement “just to get on with business.”

News of the settlement was praised by Geraldine Washington, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.

The organization has received dozens of calls during the last few years from people complaining about the screening policy at Magic Mountain, said Vacie Thomas, executive assistant for the L.A. chapter. But in the last few months, the number of complaints has dropped off considerably, she said.