Friday, March 29, 2024

Teens in Mall Policy

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Letters to the Editor

By Ashyrah McPhail
Stratford High School

Recently the malls in the state of Connecticut have put a new policy in place lasting till January 3, of 2023, restricting the number of teens in the mall that are without adult supervision and it applies between four p.m. and mall closing times.

The policy also requires the teens be supervised by someone 25 and older and one adult can supervise up to four teens. Policies like this one have been put in and out of place since 2018 when groups of teens would start several brawls and fights in both CT mall locations. Inconveniencing both shoppers and storeowners plus workers this situation even got the mall itself closed for a period of time in 2019.

However I do not agree of this policy.  Though it is clear they’re trying to be cautious and prevent further inconvenience on mall goers the policy is still unfair and generalized for the teens in CT who come to the malls and shop and act civilized.  Now a fun pastime for them is limited because of other teens assuming they’re all a problem in public spaces.

I personally am affected by this policy, and when I go to the mall I refrain from starting and getting into massive even small physical altercations while other shoppers my age are not. This policy still leaves room for teens of that nature to come into the mall and misbehave, because from my observation the teens causing the trouble are 18, 19, who look grown anyway, and I definitely think this policy needs to be tweaked and changed to a more fair solution for everyone.

Maybe make it so large groups of teens aren’t allowed in the mall like four to a group max and if more are in the group then adult supervision needs to be required. There are not many recreational/fun places for youths in CT to go and socialize so this policy is very felt by the teens who actually follow the rules in the mall.

I understand that malls have to come up with some way to combat this problem, especially because of the holiday season and definitely in the Trumbull and Milford locations because this is where these fights and altercations frequent, but restricting all teens is not the answer and in my opinion it won’t change the problem, maybe slow it, but stop it all together, no.

In summary the policy and this issue is one that if nothing is done, it is still negatively going to affect people, and if something is trying to be done about it will unfairly affect people.  Also might not solve the issue either leaving the mall to have to take more serious measures like ban all teens from the mall until further notice just causing further push back. Honestly, there’s no reason why teens don’t know how to act in the mall and other public spaces but they also shouldn’t all be treated as an issue and have their time at the mall be controlled because of others actions.

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