By Paris Rain, FOX23.com News Staff
TULSA, Okla. — A social media trend dubbed the “Sky Zone Takeover” drew a large group of teens to a Tulsa trampoline park Saturday night, prompting a police response after an altercation inside the business.
Tulsa police said the incident happened at the Sky Zone near 61st Street and Memorial Drive in the Manchester Square Shopping Center.
Captain Richard Meulenberg with TPD said officers were already working off-duty security at the location when an altercation broke out.
“We had a couple of officers there working off-duty security for Sky Zone,” Meulenberg said. “Some type of altercation happened inside Sky Zone. Someone was detained and brought outside to receive a citation for an assault that took place inside.”
Police said about 140 juveniles rushed from the trampoline area to the front of the building, grabbed their shoes and headed into the parking lot.
“Kids rushed from where they were bouncing to the front, grabbed their shoes and all headed to the parking lot,” Meulenberg said. “Because we’ve responded to similar calls involving large groups of kids, we already had several officers nearby.”
Authorities said the crowd gathered as part of a TikTok trend referred to by teens as a “Sky Zone Takeover,” where large groups show up to create social media content. What was meant to be a night of filming ended with police intervention.
Meulenberg said the situation largely amounted to kids being kids, but emphasized safety remains the department’s top priority.
Sky Zone provided FOX23 with a statement acknowledging the incident.
“We are aware of an incident where an influx of disruptive guests arrived at the Sky Zone franchise park in Tulsa, Oklahoma,” the statement read in part. “As a brand dedicated to creating safe, positive experiences, we take this matter seriously and are working with franchise owners and park management teams to review and enhance safety protocols across all parks. We are grateful for the swift response and support of the Tulsa Police Department.”
With students on Christmas break, Meulenberg said police hope to continue working with teens to prevent similar situations.
“Kids are going to do silly things,” he said. “As long as they don’t hurt anybody or break the law, our job is to protect people, protect kids from themselves sometimes and protect property and businesses. We’re hoping to work in partnership with these kids and say, ‘That’s enough. Time to move on.’ More often than not, it works.”
One of the teens that was there on Saturday said that the group was only supposed to have fun, no drama should have taken place.
“We could’ve handled it way better like no drama. We were all supposed to just have fun that night,” said Jayden Gifford.
“I watched…a couple videos and I don’t think the police handled it exactly the way they could have because you kick them all out of the building and then give them a short amount of time when they should have been calling their parents to pick them up,” said Jayden’s father, Terrence. “..Its like nine something and this places stays open until 11 o’clock on the weekends.”
