Mall Curfew...Unfair, Or Just What We Need?

Add a Comment

Comment by Rob Cocks on November 4, 2009 at 7:39am

I am a little late in the game regarding this. My wife and I go to Christiana Mall a few times a year and live in MD, so we don't follow this much. But as an adult and a parent, I am glad the mall instituted this.

First off the argument about the mall losing money, is a non-starter. I remember being a teen and going to White Marsh Mall. We never spent ANYTHING there. And if we did, it was for a CD or something low dollar like that. I didn't have the money to make any "real" purchases. As an adult, I have a good income that allows me to do this.

Second, while I have experienced teens who are nice. Many times, shopping at a mall on a Friday or Saturday night is more of a hassle than anything else. For example, my wife, son, and I were shopping at White Marsh Mall about a year ago. Teenagers were walking five or six abreast so one could not walk past them in either direction and getting them to move was almost impossible. Also, when we tried to get off an elevator, the group of teens girls decided it was more important for them to get on the elevator than it was for us to be able to get out while pushing a stroller. The as we pushed passed them, one of the girls made a snide "well, excuse me. Jesus!" I said under my breath, "b*tch" and she heard me, which then started her using VERY vulgar words being yelled in the mall and very explicit threats to me. I smartly ignored them and walked away but I do not go there any more on a Friday or Saturday night because of this.

It is too bad for the good teens to be lumped in with the bad ones but unfortunately, until one is 18, one is a minor, no matter how responsible. And if this is what it takes to keep the malls manageable for adults to shop, then so be it.

Comment by Donna Holmberg on January 14, 2009 at 12:06am

I have a 16 year old teen who thinks its HORRIBLE... I think they instituted it for a reason. Working in Family Court for the last 6 years, I can tell you that one of the BIGGEST reasons is the massive increase in shoplifting and vandalizm being done by unaccompanied teens at the mall. After participating in hundreds of bail hearings and bail review hearings where kids were dropped off at the mall to wander around for hours and then got held for hours while the police tried to track down a parent to pick them up, I understand exactly why Christiana decided to do what they did. Their shoplifting has decreased massively, and the bail hearings for juveniles caught shoplifting and vandalizing at the mall has also decreased massively. The plan worked. It's a shame that a small majority of kids created such a big problem, but you can't expect them to sit back and let it keep happening when there was/is a solution that appears to be working quite well. I am sympathetic to the well-behaved teens, but I can see how tough it was for the people who own and run the mall too. They had to do something, and this was the most feasible solution - and it's working!

Comment by Rochelle on August 30, 2008 at 12:42pm

I do see what you're saying, but it's never a good idea to target a group of people-even if you think they are the ones causing the trouble.

This is age discrimination, plain and simple, and you can clearly see that if you look at it from a different perspective. Imagine if it wasn't just young people crowding the malls, rather people of varying ages, but most of them were of a certain race ((let's say white, so I don't get called racist)). Now, what would happen if the mall put up a policy stating they weren't allowing white people in the mall after 5 unless accompanied by a person of a minority race? Would you be so eager to applaud?
There are always other options, besides resorting to these kinds of extreme measures. Hire more mall officers, ban certain problem kids from the mall, place officers at the entrances who watch who comes in, give shop owners the power to escort loiterers from their store. They decided against this and took an easy road, one that I would protest and take to court if I were living there.

My guess is that this will end up in Supreme Court, and hopefully they'll see it as it is - profiling.

I'm sorry if there are some teenagers taking the fun out of shopping, but you have to look at things objectively.

Comment by Shawna on August 26, 2008 at 6:04am

Woweee!! That does sound terrible!! I would not want to go shopping there either. If there are hundreds of kids gathered there it would be hard for security to control that number of kids. I think they would have to do something to stop this! Wow!!

Comment by Jenny on August 26, 2008 at 4:46am

I understand what you're saying, Rochelle. But, I'm thinking they tried that, you know? Store owners would tell the kids to move and they would go stand somewhere else. This is a pretty big and popular mall, and this problem has been going on for years. When my family and I walked in that Friday evening using the food court entrance, there weren't just 10 or twenty teens standing around....there were one or two HUNDRED teens standing around, running around, yelling. And when we got through the court and started shopping, the loitering issue was better but the mall was still in upheaval. The majority of these teens weren't sweet well-mannered, polite kids. They were punks. Rude. Cussing without any consideration to who was around them. And we ARE talking about under-age people. There are pretty many laws teenagers could probably consider biased!
I do feel bad for the teens who never did cause problems, I really do. But in the grand scheme of things, the mall decided there are 35+ other hours in a week these kids can go to the mall.
I'm sorry you are offended by this, and if lived here you would have been affected.
Thanks for your comment, and I hope you have a great day!

Comment by Rochelle on August 25, 2008 at 10:24pm

I find this to be an offensive and very bias law.
Now I'm a young woman, and would have been effected by this law just a year or two ago, but that is not why I find this to be so one-sided. To me, it makes more sense to enforce the existing laws, like no loitering, rather then punish a large group of people based on the actions of others.

Comment by Jenny on August 24, 2008 at 2:05pm

Oh Laura! That sounds DREAMY. This will be our first holiday season with the curfew, so if I get up that way I'll be looking forward to seeing what it's like! I wouldn't mind if they did it here in Dover as well. Your mall sounds so cool for the little ones!

Comment by Laura on August 24, 2008 at 1:56pm

The mall here did that a couple of years ago, and they kicked it off in December, right around the time people started Christmas shopping. The youngsters can hate on it all they want; I thought it was glorious! They had some family entertainment set up - a juggler, and a balloon hat guy, and some Christmas carolers. It was WONDERFUL to go Christmas shopping and be able to go visit the play area without being plowed over by a bunch of teenagers.

Comment by Jenny on August 24, 2008 at 8:54am

Shawna, I COMPLETELY agree with you. My guess is the mall only has so many security guards at the mall and they can only see so many things? And you're right, so many parents are dropping their kids off at the mall to get them out of their hair for the night. I think it's horrible. From what I've seen just as an observer, my girls will be shopping during the day when they are teens, and doing something else on weekend evenings! And since I'm their parent, I have CONTROL over that!!!

Comment by Jenny on August 24, 2008 at 8:40am

Hi Shawna & Gloria!
Shawna...I do understand what you are saying. The curfew actually states "Under the age of 18", so the oldest you would be with a chaperone is 17. BUT STILL. Maybe it's the mall specifically, because when I go to malls back in my hometown there doesn't seem to be a problem. And like I said, when we went to Christiana Mall on a Friday night with my girls, who were then ages 8, 6 and 4, it was NOT a very family-friendy place to be. So in that regard, it may be a good thing.
Gloria...I know...I thought about the difference between my 33 year-old mentality compared to a 14-17 year-old's...it's funny how even though we used to be that age and act that way (mildly), I find the stuff teens do to be quite obnoxious. I just feel like people shouldn't walk into that mall on a Friday evening for a nice night out with their family, and immediately be bombarded by cuss words, people throwing things and running around, etc. And THAT'S exactly what it was like. And yes...where DOES the time go? :)
Thanks for the comments ladies!

• First
• Previous
• Next
• Last