Time to Report Back

It has been about a year since the Mall in Columbia instituted new rules pertaining to the entry of teens.

Falling In, Village Green/Town², March 25, 2023

The Mall in Columbia announced Thursday that youth must be chaperoned by adults after reports of unruly behavior at the shopping center. The "parental guidance required" rule will take effect on March 31. Any visitors under 18 will need to be accompanied by a parent or supervising adult who is at least 21 years old after 4 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, the mall said. During those hours, officers will be present to check the IDs of young visitors.

So, how’s that going?

Is the Mall the kind of institution that will look back on twelve months of the practice and assess whether or not it has value? Has it fostered a safer place overall or has it unnecessarily targeted Black and Brown teens in order to placate white adults?

I’m curious.

Howard County Government stepped up to offer increased Youth Engagement Programming. How did that go? Were the assorted offerings easily accessible by local teens? Were they successful from the standpoint of participation? Will the county look back on the past year and examine the relative successes of the YEP! Program? Does grant money exist to continue it? How can those moneys best be spent?

Whether you look at all this as “the problem of teens” or “our community’s responsibility to teens,” one thing I keep hearing from teachers is how teens have changed since the intrusion of COVID-19 into our lives. I’m not going to delve into the particulars of why that happened. What’s important is that we engage with young people accepting fully that things have changed and that an entire generation doesn’t have the ability to “snap back” and become what the world expected of them pre-2020.

They need help, and guidance, acceptance, and support. Do extra police at the mall and security at the entrances help?

I’d like to know. And, if you have a teen, I’d love to know their take on all this,

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