California school faced fine for showing ‘The Lion King.’ Disney’s CEO is stepping in

A California elementary school was going to have to pay $250 because it showed “The Lion King” at a fundraiser in November. Now Disney’s CEO is stepping in.

CEO Robert Iger tweeted Thursday that Disney apologized to Emerson Elementary School’s PTA. He’ll also be pitching in some money for the fundraiser, he said.

The PTA hosted a parents’-night-out fundraising event in November and showed the movie in the auditorium for children to watch, KPIX reported.

Months passed, but then the school in Berkeley received notice from a copyright violations company that Emerson Elementary would need to pay $250 for publicly screening the Disney classic, Inside the Magic reported Sunday.

The event made $800, PTA President David Rose told KPIX, but because the school didn’t have a license with the company to screen the movie, it was told to pay.

Parents at the school were angry and upset. One parent, Lori Droste, took to Twitter to voice her opinion on the fine.

“Who wants to hear an unbelievable story about how Disney is essentially fining Berkeley’s Emerson Elementary School PTA $250 while reaping millions of dollars through a corporate loophole that has decimated public schools across California?” Droste tweeted in January. “Now I can imagine some of you may say there are legitimate concerns with copyright and PTA made a mistake. Sure, I get that but coming after an elementary school? Really??”

Perhaps Iger saw the backlash from the fine and decided to do something about it.

“Our company … apologizes to the Emerson Elementary School PTA and I will personally donate to their fund raising initiative,” he tweeted.

This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 7:41 PM with the headline "California school faced fine for showing ‘The Lion King.’ Disney’s CEO is stepping in."