Ha Local mall is instituting a curfew for teenagers

[gravenewworld]

If you are under 17 you will not be allowed into the mall after 5 PM on Fri. and Sat. nights unless you are accompanied by an adult. http://cbs3.com/local/Delaware.Mall.Teen.2.769257.html I'm so glad they instituted this rule. The stupid kids that hung out there would just fight all of the time and steal. It was actually dangerous to go to the mall on the weekends because of all of the animals that would hang out there. Last year there was a riot of teenagers that broke out into a massive brawl. There was also a massive food fight in the food court that broke out a little while ago. I'm glad they instituted this rule. The mall is a place of business, it is not meant to be a day care for immature little kiddies. If business owners are losing business because of all the kids hanging out, then the mall has every right to take any measure they desire to help increase business.

 

[robphy]

Our local malls have had such curfews for at least 5 years.
I don't recall any violent incidents that led to them.

 

[ekrim]

I saw a multitude of young teenagers in the mall last night at 2:30 am

 

[d_leet]

I saw a multitude of young teenagers in the mall last night at 2:30 am

Where are malls open until 2:30 am?

 

[GeorginaS]

Wasn't the first public screening of the new Batman movie shown last night at midnight? I know a bunch of younger folks who were at the movie theatres at malls here last night until around 3:00 a.m. because of that event.

 

[WarPhalange]

I went to the mall once. I couldn't find the Radioshack because it was tucked away. So I bought a sandwich.

 

[Moonbear]

5 PM seems a bit early for a curfew. I have a hard time imagining that kids who are there until 6 PM waiting for a parent to get done with work to pick them up and take them home for dinner on a Friday night are any more unruly than those there at 4 PM. I would think something like a 9 PM curfew, when most anchor stores are closing and there's nothing in the mall but the movie theater open would be a reasonable time to shuffle kids out of the mall so they aren't loitering with nothing to do but get into trouble. If it's not a school night, 9 PM isn't that late to have a 16 year old out with friends at the mall by themselves. If you throw them all out earlier than that, the ones who cause trouble will just find a different place to cause trouble.

Wasn't the first public screening of the new Batman movie shown last night at midnight? I know a bunch of younger folks who were at the movie theatres at malls here last night until around 3:00 a.m. because of that event.

That seems terribly late to allow kids to stay up...it seems terribly late for parents to stay up to pick them up after the movie too, or even to go with them. I would hope more of those were the 18-25 y.o. crowd (i.e., college kids on summer break) with a few older Batman fans who still stay up that late, and not really teens left on their own that late at night.

I wonder, though, if in general the curfew would apply to the movie theater too, if there is a theater in that mall. I don't think it's bad to drop one's teenaged kids off for a 6 or 7 pm movie while the parents go out for a nice, kid-free dinner and then return to pick them up when the movie ends.

 

[ekrim]

Where are malls open until 2:30 am?

crazy places in south florida

 

[Astronuc]

One of local malls has instituted a policy of no unescorted teenagers. The management company just got tired of parents dropping their kids off at the mall so they could just hang out.

 

[NeoDevin]

We have a mall open 24/7 here.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Is it legal to deny entrance to someone when there is no legal reason to? As far as I know they can definitely kick them out past the cerfew in city ordinance or if they are loitering and not buying anything. They can pull the 'right to refuse service' card but I doubt that they can get away with barring an entire demographic based solely on their belonging to said demographic.

 

[gravenewworld]

Is it legal to deny entrance to someone when there is no legal reason to? As far as I know they can definitely kick them out past the cerfew in city ordinance or if they are loitering and not buying anything. They can pull the 'right to refuse service' card but I doubt that they can get away with barring an entire demographic based solely on their belonging to said demographic.

I'm no lawyer, but why would it be illegal? It is private property. They should be allowed to do whatever they want. Bars are allowed to have 'ladies night' and give females only discounts on drinks.

5 PM seems a bit early for a curfew. I have a hard time imagining that kids who are there until 6 PM waiting for a parent to get done with work to pick them up and take them home for dinner on a Friday night are any more unruly than those there at 4 PM. I would think something like a 9 PM curfew, when most anchor stores are closing and there's nothing in the mall but the movie theater open would be a reasonable time to shuffle kids out of the mall so they aren't loitering with nothing to do but get into trouble. If it's not a school night, 9 PM isn't that late to have a 16 year old out with friends at the mall by themselves. If you throw them all out earlier than that, the ones who cause trouble will just find a different place to cause trouble.

The whole mall closes at 10 PM so instituting a 9 PM curfew wouldn't do much good. Kids start piling in around 5-6PM to go there for dinner and hang out. They don't need their parents to bring them there either since there are plenty of public buses that go there.

 

[moose]

Do people above the age of 17 even go to malls?

 

[Evo]

Can they still get into mall theatres? A 16 year old that can drive that wouldn't be allowed to go to a 6pm movie on a Friday night sounds crazy.

Although here a lot of the movie theatres are separate from the actual mall, they are adjacent to it in the same parking lot, which makes much more sense since the movies are open much later than the mall.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I sympathize with the malls. There are a couple of teenagers that hang out in my house. It gets old fast.

 

[Math Is Hard]

This seems like a very Draconian measure to take, and I think it's sad.

There weren't a lot of options for things to do on Friday and Saturday night when I was 16 and growing up in Hicksville. We were too young to go to bars and too old to hang out at the roller skating rink (that was, like, sooo junior high). So we went to the mall. It was a fun place to meet up with other people our age. The main attraction was the arcade, and we spent money in there. We also bought food in the food court, and while we didn't usually shop in the stores, we certainly browsed for things that we'd beg our parents to buy us on another visit. It was a safe place to go. It was a neutral place to meet up with a guy you liked without it having to be "a date". We might have been a little loud and obnoxious, but I don't think we were trouble makers, or in any way bad for business.

Are teenagers in general really that badly-behaved these days? Or did a few bad apples spoil the fun for everybody?

 

[Moonbear]

I'm no lawyer, but why would it be illegal? It is private property. They should be allowed to do whatever they want. Bars are allowed to have 'ladies night' and give females only discounts on drinks.

Yeah, being private property, I'm sure it's legal. That doesn't necessarily make it "right" or even a good idea though.

The whole mall closes at 10 PM so instituting a 9 PM curfew wouldn't do much good. Kids start piling in around 5-6PM to go there for dinner and hang out. They don't need their parents to bring them there either since there are plenty of public buses that go there.

Want to watch a mall go bankrupt? The eating places in the mall will be ticked off if they lose the teenage dinner crowd (it's not like the big spenders are hitting the mall foodcourt for a Friday night out, but the teens sure will). And, they're forgetting that those teens hanging around have a tendency to drag back their parents with credit cards when they have all that time to walk around and find the things they REALLY HAVE TO HAVE!

And, if there's a movie theater, and the kids can't get a bite to eat before the movie because their parents aren't with them, or can't even get into the theater because it requires walking through the mall, or if they can't hang out at the mall for a half hour while waiting for their movie time if the bus schedule doesn't match the movie schedule, even more business lost. Who goes to a mall on a Friday night besides teens anyway? If all the parents did their shopping then, the teens wouldn't have to take a bus to get there.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I'm no lawyer, but why would it be illegal? It is private property. They should be allowed to do whatever they want. Bars are allowed to have 'ladies night' and give females only discounts on drinks.

They are barring persons from entry based on no other criteria than inclusion in a particular demographic. That's a far cry from giving a discount to persons only of a certain demographic (such as ladies or senior citizens). Do you think they could bar persons from entry because they are black? Female? Muslim? The only reason they may be able to get away with this is because minors are generally considered to not have any but the most basic of rights and it is considered acceptable to generalize teenagers as trouble makers. If they tried to no longer allow a certain racial group in during certain hours because they are supposedly those most commonly caught stealing or causing trouble it would not fly.

 

[Moonbear]

They are barring persons from entry based on no other criteria than inclusion in a particular demographic. That's a far cry from giving a discount to persons only of a certain demographic (such as ladies or senior citizens). Do you think they could bar persons from entry because they are black? Female? Muslim? The only reason they may be able to get away with this is because minors are generally considered to not have any but the most basic of rights and it is considered acceptable to generalize teenagers as trouble makers. If they tried to no longer allow a certain racial group in during certain hours because they are supposedly those most commonly caught stealing or causing trouble it would not fly.

Except they're not completely barring them, just requiring they have a parent present. Since minors are, by definition, not considered responsible adults in the eye of the law (i.e., separate juvenile courts), this is consistent with the idea they should have responsible adults present to escort them.

Though, it does raise a question...do they actually need to have a parent present, or any adult? What if someone's grandparents wanted to take them out to the mall? Or aunt or uncle? Could one parent escort their own kids and their kids' friends who are visiting them?

So, I don't think it's illegal, but probably not the best way of going about solving the problem they have...if there's a problem at all. Kids being loud and goofing around in a mall seems pretty normal to me, I'm pretty sure we were loud in the mall when I was a kid too...nobody expects quiet in a mall. If shoplifting is the problem (that was mentioned in the OP), then increase security and crack down on the shoplifters, not all the other kids who are just having a good time and staying out of trouble.

I agree with MIH, by the way, that in a lot of towns, there really isn't much else for teens to do on a Friday night other than hang out at the mall or go to movies. It's lit, indoors, safer than wandering around the streets, has food courts that fit their budget for places to get together for a meal or snack while chatting, and being enclosed, they can be loud without disrupting neighbors in their homes. Where else are they going to go? Nicer, free-standing restaurants are too expensive for kids, parks are closed at sunset (and not really safe at night anyway, owing to the dark places where predators can hide), they can't play ball in the street or a neighbor's yard, because the noise disrupts the other neighbors, they're too young to go to dance clubs and bars. When the last few places they can hang out safely and socialize with friends starts to bar them (malls, arcades), where are they going to go?

 

[will.c]

Do people above the age of 17 even go to malls?

This.

No, seriously. If I have to buy something at the mall, or even if my wife and I just want to walk around and browse, we go during the day. You know that it's going to be full of kids in the evening, so let them have it! In my experience most adults seem to know better than to go mall shopping friday at 7 unless they absolutely have to, but somehow the malls seem to not go bankrupt. Making it kid-free post 5pm isn't going to make it a great place to shop - just an empty one.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Except they're not completely barring them, just requiring they have a parent present. Since minors are, by definition, not considered responsible adults in the eye of the law (i.e., separate juvenile courts), this is consistent with the idea they should have responsible adults present to escort them.

That's why most (if not all) cities have cerfew ordinances. So the law already deals with this issue and this seems to go above and beyond the law, unless the local cerfew is 6pm. Considering the latitude parents give their kids these days and the way parents react to people enforcing restrictions on their children I would not be suprised if this is challenged as descriminatory.