Teens and The Shopping Mall

During my time as counselor at Lutheran High School of Dallas I received a unique phone call one Monday afternoon. It was from the head of security at one of the local shopping malls. He was calling me as a courtesy, and said the information was off the record. He went on to tell me that three of our students had gotten in trouble at the mall the previous Saturday. He knew they were our students because they were wearing apparel with the school brand. They also had student ID's. He obviously could not provide names but he suggested that I remind all our students that no matter where they were, they were representing our school. I thanked him and assured him that I would address the issue. Yes, it was not the way we wanted our school to be represented. Since we were a small private school, and there were few secrets: It didn't take long to find out who the students were. While I never addressed them specifically, I did discuss appropriate behavior with several groups students, making sure to include them.

The experience came to mind recently when it was reported that the most popular mall in Dallas, North Park, is banning unchaperoned teens under seventeen after 6:00 PM. The same article reported that some malls in the U.S. did not allow any unchaperoned teens. The issue; teen behavior had become a problem and their meer presence was bothering other patrons.

I can understand the many good teens who act responsiby being upset, but I also realize why malls have to take the actions they do.

I think part of the solution lies within the realm of effective parenting. When kids report that they are heading to the mall the two questions that should be asked are: What is the purpose of the visit? Who will you be with? Going to the mall for a specific purpose is ok. Going to the mall to hang out is not. It's the old adage: Idle hands are the devil play ground.

We also need to remind our teens over and over that no matter where they are they represent their families, their schools and even more than that they represent their God.