Mall officials announced the new youth escort policy on May 1 as a way to cut down on the number of unsupervised youths hanging out at the shopping center on weekend nights. Under the new policy, after 6 p. One adult may supervise up to four children.
On Friday and Saturday evenings, mall security will at about p. Security personnel will be stationed at the main entrances to the mall, said Darkova, to turn away any unsupervised youths after that time. We get a lot of kids in the center who are not shopping.
Teens coming to the mall to see a movie will be required to go straight to the theater area when arriving and leave immediately after the movie. Unsupervised teens will not be able to linger in the food court or enter the mall shopping area after movies are over, said Darkova. That particular policy is not sitting too well with food court restaurants, according to Darkova.
Exactly how the mall will monitor comings and goings to the movie theaters is still in the works, and may include bracelets for those who have purchased tickets. The youth escort policy has been in the works for months. Ahitow stated back in February that such a policy would be implemented eventually. The mall has cracked down on unruly behavior since a pair of large-scale incidents back in and Also since that time, mall management has made improvements to the shopping center, including upgrading the food court and other common spaces, attracting higher-end tenants and inking a deal with Classic Cinemas to run its movie theater complex.
Ahitow said the goal is to lure families back to shop at the mall on Friday and Saturday nights. But it has the tendency to drive adults away. The mall escort policy affects youths under age
