Disney To FSU Football Recruits: Welcome Back

Posted Jun 29, 2007 by Aaron Knox

Updated Jun 29, 2007 at 01:58 PM

The four Florida State football recruits banned for life from Walt Disney World last weekend are now invited back. Disney World officials lifted the lifetime banishment Thursday following two days of heated public debate over whether Disney racially profiled the teens as some of their parents suggested.

All four of the FSU recruits – Vincent Williams, Avis Commack, Nigel Carr and Nick Moody – are 17 and black. Another player, Hillsborough High senior-to-be Moses McCray, was with the group at Downtown Disney on June 22 but fled before being finger-printed, photographed and issued lifetime bans from Disney properties for what park officials deemed “loitering for a particularly long time.’’

A Disney spokeswoman confirmed the reduced sanctions on Friday. Under revision of the trespass warnings the teens received, they are still banned from Downtown Disney for a year, but they can visit any other Disney property, including all theme parks.

All of the players have verbally committed to play at FSU in 2008. They were ordered to leave Downtown Disney as part of what Disney and Orange County Sheriff Department officials describe as a beefed up anti-gang, no-loitering policy.

The increased crackdown on youth loitering has resulted in nearly 50 lifetime banishments the past two weekends, with the majority of citations issued to blacks and Hispanics.