Not so Magic Mountain

My darling daughter turns four this upcoming week.

She requested a special day trip to the local (well, 2 hours drive) Six Flags amusement park here in California with her very best little friend (who is also almost four). We spent the whole day at this park yesterday and it was divine - no lines, no waiting, the girls and my baby son behaved beautifully and enjoyed their Six Flags Magic Mountain adventure with abandon. The girls won entirely too many stuffed animals at the carnival portion of the park and went on every kid sized ride that was offered. There were so few people there that we walked on rides most of the time and our LONGEST wait was about 2-3 minutes. We had such a great time overall and the day was quite nearly perfect.

HOWEVER (why does there have to BE a however?)... one major incident occurred on this trip which was both traumatic, angering, frightening, and enlightening.

My sweet LaLa and her best friend, Sarah, along with a 3-year old boy, got trapped on a roller coaster that broke down and stopped mid-ride. This roller coaster ride was located in the "KIDS" area of the park and was designed for riders under 6. It was, in fact, the only ride we encountered in the park in which parents were specifically NOT permitted to accompany our children.

At it's highest point, the track of this very mild, circular roller coaster was perhaps 6 or 7 feet off the ground. However, as luck would have it, it happened to break down at the very highest point in the track, which was also the farthest point away from the gate and perimeter fence where we were watching, cameras and smiles in tow.

So, three little 3-year olds were trapped up on a broken down coaster and sitting in the sun, simply terrified. Sarah actually unlatched herself from her seatbelt restraint, stood up, and tried to climb down out of the coaster car, causing us all to fear she would fall out of the car and onto the ground below or get caught in the track and be seriously hurt. The children were hysterical. LaLa was screaming for me to please come get her, sobbing and calling for "Mommy". All three children were inconsolably, frantically trying to get out of the coaster, putting themselves in imminent danger of serious injury.

The operator of this ride was perhaps 19. When the ride broke down, she made a call on a phone in her "booth". She told us it was against the law for us to breach the perimeter of the ride in order to get to our children. I asked her if she could do it, to which I was told she'd lose her job. I asked if anyone was coming to help and she said, "I think so - I called." I told her plainly that if someone did not arrive to help our children within 5 minutes, I was jumping the fence and they could just put me in Magic Mountain jail for breaking the "rules".

It is rare that I am so brazenly, emotionally confrontational to this degree, but a switch flipped on somewhere beneath my solar plexis and I became a mother possessed. I was not going to let the "rules" stand in the way of rescuing my baby.

We spent the next 5 minutes trying to console the girls by yelling (they were too far away to hear us in normal voice) with assurances that it was "Going to be OK", "People are coming to help get you out" and to "please sit down!" when they tried repeatedly to find a way OUT. As can be expected with frightened three-year-olds, they were NOT calming down and were growing more frantic with time. This was clearly traumatic for them.

Ten minutes passed. No one had arrived from the park to help our children or even acknowledge our situation. That was it for me. I realize now that I was quicker to get angry and thus motivated to act in this situation partially because my Mother Bear instincts kicked in immediately. All healthy mothers have these instincts - they cannot be described and equally cannot be dismissed.

I was also closer to the girls and could see the obviously worsening fear and hysterics on their faces, and I sensed that the procedures of the Six Flags Park were obviously more important to this ride operator and supposedly responding personnel than the safety and well being of my child. So I rolled JoyBoy's stroller around the corner to the closest point to the girls I could get to, and tried climb up over the fence separating me from the ride where my child was stuck. The ride operator saw me and warned me that it was against the rules and dangerous for me to go over the barrier into the ride. I told her it was more dangerous for her to tell me it was AGAINST THE RULES to HELP MY CHILD. She told me I'd be arrested and that she'd call security to stop me. I told her, "Call them! And while you're at it, make sure they know there are 3 three-year olds TRAPPED up there!"

Copper grabbed my arm, pulling me away from the fence and talked to me sternly. He told me I was getting hysterical, my emotions were not helping the situation, and to calm down. I told him to GET OUR DAUGHTER and that he could lecture me later. I also promised him that if he was not going to jump over that to get LaLa and Sarah down from that ride, I was.

The ride operator again told us someone was coming. We waited another 5 minutes. No one came to help. The poor mother of the little boy in the front car was standing next to me, crying. She was physically incapable of scaling the fence and jumping over the wall or she would have. She was clearly distressed and calling for someone to please help her son. It was an unpleasant scene.

After about 20 minutes of waiting, we were at our limit of patience. Copper and Sarah's Dad scaled the fence, jumped over the rock wall, and were able to lifted both girls and the little boy out of the coaster, off of the tracks and over the wall to anxiously waiting mothers.

While this was happening, the ride operator was calling in a "9-1-1. Perimeter Breach! 9-1-1. Perimeter Breach!" This simply astonished me. It is apparently less of an emergency situation to have 3 small children trapped on a ride on a track extended 6-7 feet above ground than it is when their parents break the rules to rescue them?

The logic of that continues to escape me and fuels my fire of anger even as I write this.

The girls were crying, shaking, and very clingy ~ sobbing uncontrollably. I just held and rocked my baby till she was able to gradually gain control overself and stop sobbing.

Interestingly, within 30 seconds of our controversial "rescue" activities, three (3!) people from the Park came running to where we were. We were all shocked and angered because the security force and management was clearly able to respond almost immediately when their precious "perimeter was breached" but not when three children were trapped?

My amazing husband and Sarah's Dad expressed their lividity and outrage in controlled but firm tones, as they explained the obvious. No one was coming, it had been 20 minutes, our children were hysterical and in danger of hurting themselves trying to get out of this broken coaster, and our actions were vital to get our kids out of danger since no one else was doing ANYTHING. Copper also stated that it was INEXCUSABLE to not have a quicker response time than 20 minutes for ANYONE to show interest in the situation of 3-year olds trapped on a broken ride up in the air, but then to arrive on scene within 30 seconds when a "Perimeter Breech" was called in. Some warped prioritizing going on there.

The female representative sent to deal with us "Irate Parents" was unmoved and unconcerned. She calmly explained why our actions were against the rules, that the rules were in place to "protect the guests", and why we must not ever break the rules by "breeching the boundaries of a ride again."

At this point, I uttered my only words to this woman, "I realize this is not your fault, but this lack of caring about our BABIES over your RULES is inexcusable. And let me tell you that if another one of your rides breaks down with my child in it and no one comes to help, I will absolutely BREACH THE PERIMETER to get my child."

Dh touched my arm and told me to calm down. I knew better at this point because I was becoming more upset, not less, as everyone else seemed to be de-escalating. I took the girls and Joyboy to get a drink since it had been hot in the sun, and I was obviously not capable of constructive participation in any continuing conversation with the "Park Lady." Copper and Sarah's Dad finished with the Manager, gave her our information, and filled out her forms.

NEVER did anyone ask about our girls. NEVER did anyone say anything about them at all.

As we were leaving the area, one of the "roller coaster guru guys" came over to us, waving a completely thrashed, grease stained hat in the air. He thrust it into Copper's hands and gruffly said, "This is what made the ride break down." It was LaLa's special Maui hat, which had apparently blown or fallen off onto the track and been run over by the coaster, thereby apparently disabling it. The man said. "This caused the ride to break. Your hat." and shook his head at us. Copper asked him if we was implying that our child deliberately threw the hat onto the tracks to disable the roller coaster. The man said no, but this could all have been avoided.

Thanks for that. In light of all the recent happenings, it sure is important information to know that you blame our child and her hat for what happened. Great. Thanks. That's helpful.

If anyone had responded within a reasonable time frame and/or had been remotely concerned about the 3 trapped human children rather than the inanimate objects or policies and procedures involved in the situation, my heart would be in a much different place. Imagine having your kids sobbing and scared, trapped on a ride, and those in positions to help do NOT. And when the responding would-be "rescuers" arrive at last, they are worried about hats and whether or not to throw us out of the park for violating their "rules".

So many words sought expression from me, but ultimately I kept quiet after the immediate danger passed. Compassion and morally correct behavior cannot be argued into people who just simply don't get it and who place protocol and rules over decency and humanity. We plan to write a direct letter to the Park, followed up with a call to the Manager. Our goal is to make sure this policy of berating parents for protecting their children in the absence of proper Park response does not go officially and formally unnoted.

It is wrong to value the "rules" MORE of the safety of three children in a dangerous situation, whom such rules are supposedly in place to protect.

Aside from that half hour of trauma, we had an otherwise perfect birthday outing and it was such a special treat for my almost four-year old sweetheart.

I did have some moments of enlightenment as I have thought back over and replayed this incident in my mind which are worthy of sharing. But alas, it must wait as the clock display and my anchored eyelids beckon me to sleep.

Bless you all who have managed to consume this whole post. It was therapeutic of sorts to place this on paper and marinate myself in both renewed indignation and anger, but saturated with deep doses of gratitude. My sweet daughter, Sarah, and the other little boy are unharmed physically by this experience. And I trust the scars on their hearts and minds to Jesus, who is far more capable than I to incorporate this episode into amazing bounty for these children.